THE TRAGIC HEROINES OF ■ ^ / - PIERRE CORNEILLE A STUDY IN FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE SEVENTEENTtC'cENTURY. ' v '^ ^ > !.Y %^ A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE philosSphigal faculty of the university 51 OF STRASSBUilG * FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING THE DEGREE 1 * ♦ OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY * BY • C6aRI)&« CARLTON A^YER \ • » \ STR A SSRURfi' '"*■"'>• ' ' PRINTED BY J. H. ED. HEIT^ (SfelTZ & MUNDEL) 1898. 1 l-J i-L, x\ccepled as dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philo- sophy by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Slrass- burg, Germany Dec. W^ 1896. '^ ]1PJ TO MY MOTHER U r OK THK The subject of the following pages was suggested to the writer by Professor Grober of the University of Strassburg. The writer takes this opportunity of thanking Professor Grober for his kind assistance and encouragement during the progress of the work, as well as for the many valuable hours passed under his instruction. CONTENTS. Page Introduction 1 Part. I. Corneille's own Theories in regard to his heroines. J. Their aristocratic birth 21 2. The appropriate number 27 3. The ideal iype 37 Part II. Other requisites, which gradually became a fixed part of Cor- neille's dramatic system. 1. Their «gloire» 63 2. Their pathetic element 77 3. Their self-control and power of dissimulation .... 90 4. Their polite breeding 99 5. Their Gallic wit 108 6. Their personal charms and attributes 118 7. Conclusion 186 INTRODUCTION.' The object of the present essay is to 'call back from ob- livion the heroines of the great Gorneille ; for it is not too much to say that the vast majority of them have long since passed out of the recollection and interest of the public. Even in France, the land of their birth, they are with few exceptions forgotten. It is only with difficulty that one recalls the names of some half a dozen of the best known among them.^ This fact sur- prises us, when we reflect that in the seventeenth century, Gorneille was venerated as the father of French tragedy, and that the birth of each new daughter was a literary event of no small importance. For nearly forty years, from the production of his first tragedy, MEDEE, in 1635 down to 1672. when he closed his literary career with SURENA, Gorneille dominated the French stage. To be sure, his popularity toward the last was not as great as it was in the days of his early master- pieces. The peculiar genius of Racine had gradually won the public over to a new style of tragedy, where love and not the^^ heroic conflict of duty and passion, was the theme. But the 1 Even Guizot (Gorneille et son temps, p. 256, Paris 1813) makes the blunder of calling the heroine of PERTHARITE Rosamunde instead of Rodelinde, and in a second revised edition of 1852, this error remains un- corrected. The heroine is called by her right name, however, on p. 222. 1 — 2 — reputation of Gorneille still remained great to the end, as is attested by Mme. de S^vigne in many a letter subsequent to the year 1669, when many critics would have us beHeve that the star of Gorneille had long since set. It does not take long to mention the heroines of Gorneille whose names are familiar to the general reading public. Every- body knows and admires Ghimene, the heroine of the GID, as one of the most unique creations in the whole realm of tra- gedy. The famous curse, of Gamille still makes the heroine of HOR AGE/ fi; fa vpVUe: Jyitti .'ambitious young debutantes. The Emihe- of. QINJiA-is. knownr'as the most typical of Gorneille's «adoraife''tel^W;*'knd»%e- Pauline of POLYEUGTE stands alone as the proof that Gorneille could create a tender womanly heroine, if he chose to do so. These four heroines are gener- ally known, because they are the leading female figures in the four masterpieces of Gorneille, and as such are discussed in the numerous histories of French literature. But these heroines of four tragedies form but a small minority in the total num- ber ; for Gorneille, it should be remembered, was the author of twenty-four tragedies or heroic dramas. Only the special student of Gorneille now-a-days is at all interested in the remainder of the poet's female characters ; in the fact, for example, that M6dee with her tragic cry of «Moi !» ^ struck the key note of the Gorneille heroine ; that Theodore failed to please, because a heroine threatened with the ignominy of prostitution was shocking to the French ideas of propriety ; that Rodogune was the heroine of the play which Gorneille regarded as his best work ; that the Gl^opatre in the same play furnished Lessing with material for one of his bit- terest attacks on the classic French tragedy ; ^ that Rodelinde, who was regarded as largely responsible for the failure of 1 MEDEE, 1. V 320. 2 Hamburger Dramaturgie No. 29. PERTHARITE served later as the inspiration to Racine's AN- DROMAQUE; thatDirc6, Viriate and Eryxe were special favorites of Gorneille, because, as he said, they were purely the pro- ducts of his own powers of invention;^ that the Berenice who brought Gorneille into direct competition with his younger rival, Racine, was no other than Henrielte d'Angieterre, subduing her passion for Louis XIV ; that Pulch^rie aroused great expectations in Mme. de Sevigne,^ only to meet with a cool reception from the Parisian public ; ^ and finally, that Gorneille's last heroine, Eurydice, died with a cry on her lips worthy of the most sublime tragic heroine. These casual comments on the unknown and forgotten heroines of Gorneille, show us that in their day they were regarded as personages of importance. Why then have they passed so completely into oblivion? It is the custom of most writers on French literature in treating of Gorneille, to say that his greatest period of popu- larity lasted from 1636, when his tragic genius burst forth in all its power in LE GID, to 1652, when the utter failure of PERTHARITE drove him into temporary retirement ; further, that on his return to the theatre in 1659, he found the public taste changed, the love tragedies of Quinault having in the meantime supplanted his own heroic dramas in public favor. Hence the gradual decadence of his fame down to the end of his career, notwithstanding many admirable points in all of his later plays. It is also the custom to dismiss briefly even those plays which belong to the first period. The four masterpieces are the only ones which receive adequate treatment, and it is precisely in limiting ourselves to these four plays, that we fail to arrive 1 Examen d'CEDIPE; SERTORIUS, Au Lecteur; and SOPflONISBE, Au Lecteur. . 2 Lettre du 15 Janvier 1672. Mme. de Sevign6 a Mme. de Grignan. 3 Lettre du 24 F§vrier 1673. Mme. de Coulanges a Mme. de S6vign6. — 4 — at a true estimate of Gorneille's real worth as a dramatist; - Likewise in considering critically only Ghimene, Gamille, Emilie, and Pauline, we do not begin to get at a real understanding of the poet's own point of view in regard to his heroines. As far as we know, no comparative study of these heroines ?. has as yet been undertaken. In looking over the mass of hlerature on Gorneille,^ we find only isolated statements con- cerning a few individual heroines, or general criticisms praising or condemning them, according to the writer and his mood. Some of the opinions of Gorneille's contemporaries are worth noting; for instance, the abusive criticism showered upon Ghimene by Scudery ^ and the Academic ; ^ the declaration of Balzac that no writer of antiquity had ever produced heroines to be compared with Emilie and Sabine ; * the proposal of the Abb^ d'Aubignac^ to alter the climax of HORAGE by making Gamille throw herself upon the sword of her brother, instead of being pursued to her death by him ; the opinion of St. Evremond ^ on Gorneille's masterly delineetion of the charac- ters of Gorn^lie and Sophonisbe ; the antipathy which Racine^ expresses for women who are more masculine than the heroes to whom they give their lessons in heroism ; the defence by Gorneille ^ of the heroic type and his disapproval of the tender type adopted by Quinault and brought to perfection by Racine. These isolated bits of criticism are interesting, but they be- long to a period long since past. They possess no living inte- rest. They furnish us with no clew by which we can explain J E. Picot. Bibliographie Cornelienne, Paris 1876. 2 Observations sur le CID, Paris 1637. ^ Les sentiments de l'Acad6mie Fran(jaise sur la tragi-comedie du Cid Paris 1638. * Lettre a Corneille 17 Jan. 1643. 5 La Pratique du Theatre 1657, p. 82. « SOPHONISBE.. An Lecteur. 7 Dissertation sur I'ALEXANDRE de Racine, Oeuvres choisies, p. 167, edition Firmin Didot, Paris 1852. 8 Premiere Preface de BRITANNICDS 1667. - 5 - to ourselves the general indifference that prevails to-day in regard to Gorneille's heroines. It is for this reason that we make them the object of a special study, which shall, as far as possible, make clear the poet's ideas on the subject. By comparing them with one another, we may perhaps see why they have not held their place on the stage. But before we begin the examination of the tragedies, in which our heroines appear, it is first necessary to have clearly in mind the general character of the life, manners, and litera- ture of the seventeenth century in France. Two facts impressi^ themselves at once upon us ; first, the literature of the age 1 was entirely under aristocratic influence ; and secondly, the \ chefs d'osmre of this golden age of French literature were \ masterpieces written according to rules. Perhaps these two \ facts may not be without their bearing on the heroines of \ Gorneille. The influence of polite society ^ on the literature of the ^ seventeenth century in France, is not to be under estimated, ' and specially the influence of the ladies, those grandes dames ^ whose names add such lustre to the century of Louis XIV. In no department of literature was their interest more-" keen than in the drama. This is to be explained by the fact that up to the year 1618, no lady could with decency go to the theatre, and that the elevation of the stage to a plane of respectability had just been accomplished, when the Marquise de Rambouillet opened her famous salon. ^ In 1620 the Hotel Rambouillet came into existence, and began at once to exert its refining influence on all who came within its precincts. The object of the mistress of the Blue Chamber was not to estab- 1 Victor Cousin. La Societe Frangaise au XVII« siecle d'apres le de Mile, de Scudery. Paris 1858. 4tli edition, 2 vol. Paris 1873. 2 Breitinger. Der Salon Rambouillet und seine kulturhistorische Be- deutung, Zurich 1874. — 6 — lish a literary tribunal. Her idea was simply to form a fash- ionable and agreeable rendez-vous for high society where literary people could meet the members of the cultivated nobi- lity in social intercourse. All serious literary work she gladly left to be attended to at the Saturday receptions of Mlle« de Scudery.^ Mme. de Rambouillet was not a writer, though she was a distinguished patron of letters; she was not a poHtician, even if some of the ladies who mingled in her salon, did allow themselves to become involved in political schemes ; and she was not a prude, if she did make it her object to keep out of her house the tone of licentiousness which had disgraced the court of Henri IV, and to cultivate within her walls the true ideals of hospitality, honor and politeness. The influence of the Hotel Rambouillet lasted unimpaired from 1620 to 1645, when the marriage and departure of the beautiful Julie d'Angennes, daughter of the Marquise de Ram- bouillet announced that the famous salon was nearing its end. The final dissolution was caused in 1648 by the death of Voiture, one of the most elegant conversationists of the Blue Chamber, and by the termination of the war of the Fronde, which dispersed many of the most important members of that brilliant society. The fame and influence of the Hotel Rambouillet were, therefore, at their height during those years, when Gorneille was engaged in producing his greatest and most enduring master- pieces. During his frequent visits to Paris he was always a welcome guest at the Wednesday receptions. He had the honor of reading POLYEUGTE before the Marquise and the chagrin of hearing afterwards that his religious tragedy had not pleased her. But he also had the satisfaction of knowing that his tragedies in general and especially his tragic heroines, found 1 Rath6ry et Boutrou. Mile, de Scud6ry, sa vie et sa correspondance avec un choix de see poesies. Paris 1873. ■ — / great favor in the eyes of certain ladies of Mme. de Rambouillel's coterie. The Hotel Rarabouillet had a great influence on Cor- >^ neiDe, as we shall see. The second of the elements which is inseparably asssoci-*. ated with the seventeenth century in France, is the preponde-w ranee of rules in all departments of literature. As time went on, individuality of creation was more and more discouraged, and those writers were regarded as the greatest geniuses, who produced works in closest accordance with the rules. To defy the rules was not only to subject one's self to merciless rid- icule, but to place one's self beyond the pale of serious con- sideration. To please according to the rules was the end and aim of every judicious writer. Malherbe ^ is the first great literary law-giver of the • seventeenth century. His field was poetry. The rules which he laid down were recognized by Boileau, and accepted as infal- lible by future poets for the next two centuries. Gorneille profited by many of his suggestions. Malherbe forbade all rhyme which appealed only to the ear (apparent, conqu^rantj ; rhyme between a simple and a compound word (temps, prin- temps); or between words of similar nature (pere, mere); or between proper names (Lysandre, Alexandre) ; or between a long and a short syllable (ame, dictame) ; or a rhyme between the middle of a line and the end. Hiatus and enjamhement were likewise strictly forbidden. Balzac ^ with the same discrimination established the rules of prose. Just as Malherbe made it his life work to free the French poetry from Greek, Latin, and patois elements, so 1 Oeuvres de Messire Francois de Malherbe, Gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy 1630. See Blanchemain edition, Paris 1877. See also Gournay. Malherbe, sa vie et ses oeuvres, Paris 1852. 2 Oeuvres. 2 vol. Paris 1665. Edition Conrart ; Edition Malitourne 1822, 2 vol. Edition Moreau Paris 1854, 2 vol. Lettres in6dites de Balzac, Tamizey de Larroque, Paris 1872. — 8 - Balzac resolved to fix the rules of a prose style which should be purely and nationally French and not the French of a Ra- belais, Arayot or Montaigne, or indeed of any author however gifted, who might hitherto have written. A glance at the LETTRES and ENTRETIENS of Balzac shows us at once his theories as to the use of hyperbole, the periodic construction of sentences, the skillful use of antitheses and metaphors. Corneille also made use of many of these points and delighted especially in antitheses and symmetry of construction. In 1635, the Academic Frangaise ^ was founded. The pri- mary object of this body was simply to establish the rules of the French language, and on these lines the plans.of a gram- mar were drawn up by Ghapelain, and the compilation of the DIGTIONNAIRE DE L'ACADEMIE FRANGAISE was entrusted to Vaugelas. But soon after the establishment of the institution, an event occurred, which changed for the moment the policy of the academicians. This event was the production of LE GID in 1636. Through the jealousy of Scud^ry and Richlieu. the question as to the faults and merits of the new work was brought before the Academic. As we now contemplate the im- mortal fame which this masterpiece of French tragedy enjoys, it matters but little to us that the Academic taking sides with Scud^ry, declared that the new play was contrary to the rules. The one point which arrests our attention is that the word «regles» was thereby introduced into dramatic criticism with an intensity and a significance hitherto unknown. The Aca- demic criticised Gorneille for the subject matter of the GID, and for his manner of dealing with it. They also disapproved of the character of the heroine. But the greatest objection I Pellisson et Abb6 d'Olivet. Histoire de I'Academie, 2 yoI. Paris 1729 (1635-1652 by Pellisson, 1652-1700 by d'Olivet) new edition by Ch. Livet* Paris 1858, 2 vol. ' P. Mesnard. Histoire politique de I'Academie Frangaise, Paris 1858. — 9 - which was raised was that Gorneille had violated the law of^ the unities. The law of the three unities of time, place and action is popularly regarded as the chardiciensiic par excellence of the classic French tragedy, almost indeed, as the special invention of the classic French dramatists according to the teachings of Aristotle. But Ihis is not so. In France the law of the three unities was construed into a national dramatic dogma by Ghapelain in 1637, as a result of the quarrel over the GID. But if we examine the literature of other nations previous to the GID we shall find that the unities were known, even if they were not strictly observed in the other European countries long before the time of Gorneille ^ by such writers as Trissino ^ in Italy, Sir Philip Sidney^ and Ben Jonson'^ in England, by Gervantes ^ and Tirso de Molina^ in Spain, Lope de Vega ' even makes a protest against being hampered by what he regards as a needless hindrance to the dramatist. In France, as we have said, the law of the unities found favor, because it was a law. It increased the difficulty to be surmounted. It was one of those very strains on the dramatist's powers of invention in which Gorneille of all poets gloried. The GID was a masterpiece, but was against the rules. Gor- neille, therefore, deferred to the opinions of the Academic, and yielding to the pressure in the literary atmosphere about him, he never again presumed nor desired to assert his independence of the rules. On the contrary, beginning with HORAGE, he 1 Breitinger. Les unites d'Aristote avant le Cid de Gorneille, Ge- neve 1879. 2 La Poetica. Divisioni quattro. Vicenza 1629 ; in edition of 1563, supplementary chapters on comedy and tragedy. 3 An Apologie for Poetrie 1595. See Arbor's English reprints, Lond. 1868. 4 Prologue to every Man in his Humour 1598. 5 Don Quijote 1610. I 48. 6 Los Cigarrales de Toledo Madrid 1624. 7 Rima con el arte nuevo de hacer comedias, 1609. obras sueltas IV. - 10 - adhered closely to them, and remained to the end of his career, a classicist in the slrictest French acceptance of the term. What were then the special characteristics of the classic French tragedy ? What were the other rules besides the law of the unities? In order to understand the requisites of the classic school, as distinguished from the romantic school, we must examine the works of a great number of tragic dramatists. It is not sufficient to begin with Gorneille as inventor of the classic school. His title of father of the French tragedy is contestable, for he owed much, especially in the matter of minor details to his literary ancestors and contemporaries. We must be fa- miliar with Jodelle,^ Garnier,^ Montchrestien,^ Mairef^ and many other lesser dramatists, before we can appreciate the perfection of outer form attained by Gorneille. Many persons rate Racine above Gorneille, but Racine and after him, Vol- taire could not but have acknowledged that they owed an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Gorneille for establishing for them and in behalf of the literary glory of France the canons of the national tragedy. ^ Briefly stated, the classicists of the French school were idealists and maintained that tragedy should represent only the noble and dignified in art to the exclusion of the grotesque or comic; that reason should be the poet's guide and not his own unbridled fancies or poetical caprices ; that the true mo- dels and subjects were to be found in antiquity in the history and mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, and not in con- temporaneous subjects of modern times and nations ; that the classic tragedy must have a fixed form, a fixed number of acts J 1532-1673. 2 1545-1601. 3 1575-1621. ♦ 1604-1686. — 11 ~ and lines without enjambement and with regular caesura and appropriate rhyme, in short, the monotonous, though exquisi- tely perfect system of versification of Malherbe and Boileau ; that the action, the actual bodily exertion of the actors be reduced to a minimum, that no scene of violence, except suicide, be enacted on the open stage, and that its place be supplied by narrations to confidants, or by stately monologues which should apprise the spectator of the course of events . without detracting from the dignified deportment of the perso- nages ; and finally, that the play must conform to the law of the three unities of time, place and action, mentioned above, and most happily formulated in the well known couplet of Boileau, Qu'en un lieu, en un jour, un seul fait accompli Tienne jusqu'a la fin le theatre rempli.^ The history of the maintenance of the «regles» down to the rise of the romantic school in the nineteenth century would form a whole chapter in itself. For our present purpose, how- ever, it suffices to say that the rules which governed the masterpieces of Gorneille, were perpetuated by Racine and Voltaire and justified themselves, at least from the French point of view, by the production of tragedies which hold a permanent place in the repeftoire of the Theatre Francais. It is the custom to exalt Racine at the expense of Voltaire, but no one can deny that in ZAIRE and MEROPE, Voltaire produced two plays that entitle him to rank with the first dramatists of the French stage. Toward the close of seventeenth century occurred the^ famous quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. Perrault ^ maintained in an excess of national enthusiasm that the authors of the France of the seventeenth century totally eclipsed the 1 Art poetique 45-46. 2 Parallele des Anciens et des Modernes 1688-1693, 2 vol. — 12 - great writers of antiquity, that Malherbe was superior to Ho- race, Moliere to Plautus, La Fontaine to Phaedrus. Boileau ^ the foremost critic of the century, did not share the views of Perrault, but he did express it as his opinion that antiquity had produced no tragedies, which could be compared with the classic masterpieces of the century of Louis XIV. Gorneille died in 1684, Racine in 1699, leaving the national faith in the rules unshaken. In the eighteenth century, Vol- taire with his learning, his talent, and above all, with his revolutionary nature, might easily, by the sheer force of his own individuality, have overturned the dramatic tenets of the previous century. As it was, in his natural restlessness, he introduced certain innovations, which had not characterized the works of his predecessors. He extended the field of psy- ^ chological possibilities. Whereas Gorneille had always dwelt on ^the conflict between duty and passion, and Racine on love, as the only mainsprings of tragic action, Voltaire studied paternal or family love in ZULIME, BRUTUS, SEMIRAMIS, MEROPE, L'ORPHELIN DE LA CHINE; the sentiment of Christianity in ZAIRE and ALZIRE ; the sentiment of chivalry in TANGREDE. He also made his plays more interesting by strengthening the action and hastening the movement, and by varying the scene of action, which Gorneille and Racine had always had a predi- lection for placing in Greece, Rome, or tributary provinces. Voltaire laid the scene of his dramas in Palestine (MARIANNE, ZAIRE), in South America (ALZIRE), in Sicily (TANGREDE), and in Ghina (L'ORPHELIN DE LA GHINE). He also deftly managed to weave his philosophical views into his plays, in order that he might instruct as well as amuse. Voltaire's services to the French tragedy were, therefore, considerable ; but he nevertheless remained classic at heart and cast his plays in that classic mould, which he had been brought up to reverence. 1 Lettre a M. Perrault, 1700. - 13 - His devotion to the cause of the classic tragedy is also to be attributed in a large measure to his confidence in the good taste of his nation in all matters whether literary or otherwise. The expression c nymphes d' Andromede Liriope \ Bon Sane he d' At agon 1650 D. Isabelle, reine de Gastille Blanche, dame d'honneur de la de Gastille D. Lienor, reine d'Aragon D. Elvire, princesse d'Aragon Nicomede 1651 Arsinoe, seconde femme de Prusias Gl^one, confidente d'Arsinoe Laodice reine d'Armenie reine 2 noble ladies 1 confidant 4 male characters 2 noble ladies 1 confidant 6 male characters 3 noble ladies 7 male characters 2 noble ladies 3 confidants 5 male characters 3 noble ladies 1 confidant 5 male characters 2 noble ladies 1 confidant 5 male characters — 19 — Perthariie 1652 Rodelinde, femme de Perthariie 2 noble ladies Eduige, soeur de Perthariie 4 male characters Oedipe 1659 Jocaste, reine de Thebes, femme et mere 2 noble ladies d'Oedipe Nt^rine, dame d'honneur 1 confidant Dirce , princesse de Thebes , fiile de Laius et de Jocaste, soeur d'Oedipe . et amante de Thesee 6 male characters La Toison d'Or 1660 Ghalciope, fille d'Aete, veuve de Phryxus 3 noble ladies Medee, fille d'Aete, amante de Jason 9 male characters Hypsipyle, reine de Lemnos JSertorius 1662 Aristie, femme de Pompee , 2 noble ladies Viriate, reine de Lusitanie, a present Portugal 1 confidant Thamire, dame d'honneur de Viriate 6 male characters JSophonisbe 1663 Sophonisbe, fille d'Asdrubal, general des 2 noble ladies Garthaginois, et reine de Numidie Herminie, dame d'honneur de Sophonisbe 2 confidanls Eryxe, reine de G^tulie 7 male characters Barege, daine d'honneur d'Eryxe Othon 1664 Gamille niece de Galba 2 noble ladies Albiane, soeur d'Albin et dame d'hon- 2 confidants neur de Gamille Plautine, fille de Vinius, amante d'Othon 8 male characters Flavie, amie de Plautine 20 AgMIas 1666 Mandane, soeur de Spilridate ^S^l ) ^^^'' ^' ^^''''^'' Attila 1667 Honorie, soeur de Temp^reur Valentin Flavie, dame d'honneur d'Honorie Ildione, soeur de M^rovee, roi de France Tite et Berenice 1670 B^r^nice, reine d'une partie de Jud^e Domilie, fille de Gorbulon Plauline, confidente de Domilie PsycM 1671 V^nus Aegiale Phaene Psyche Aglaure Cydippe PulcMrie 1672 Pulch^rie, imp^ratrice Irene, soeur de L6on Justine, fille de Martian Snrena 1674 Eurydice, fille d'Artabase, roi d'Armenie Ormene, dame d'honneur d'Eurydice Palmis, soeur de Surena graces soeurs de Psyche 3 noble ladies 6 male characters 2 noble ladies 1 confidant 4 male characters 2 noble ladies 1 confidant 5 male characters 2 goddesses 2 groups of suivantes 8 male characters 3 noble ladies 3 male characters 3 noble ladies 1 confidant 4 male characters The quotations and references are based upon the Marty-Laveaux edition of Corneille. Paris 1862-70. 12 vol. (Grands Jficrivains de la France.) PART I. GORNEILLE'S OWN THEORIES IN REGARD TO HIS HEROINES. 1. Their aristocratic birth. The first point which strikes our attention, as we look over the long list of the female characters of Gorneille is thein aristocratic birth. Without exception they are of royal or noble family^ and in this respect, they perpetuate a leading charac- teristic of the classic Greek tragedy, and at the same time conform to the ideals of the polite society of the seventeenth century in France. Nevertheless, it was only after a struggle that Gorneille, himself a man of simple tastes and unostenta- tious mode of living, submitted to the aristocratic yoke. At heart he was of one mind with Diderot and Lessing, who in the next century waged such stubborn war against the exclu- sively aristocratic element in the French tragedy. Even in the seventeenth century, too, he had had a few examples of bour- geois tragedy to justify him in his position — Alexandre Hardy, the most unconventional dramatist of his time, and as such a horror later in the eyes of persons of quality, had introduced tragedies of a purely domestic nature upon the French stage, and had made a deep impression on Gorneille. In discussing the nature of tragedy, Gorneille says: «. . . j'ose m'imaginer que ceux qui ont restreint cetle sorte de po^me aux personnes illustres n'en ont d^cid^ que sur ropinion qu'ils — 22 — ont eue qu'il n'y avoit que la fortune des rois et des princes qui fvlt capable d'une action telle que ce grand maitre^ de Tart nous present et je ne puis croire que Fhospitalite vio- l^e en la personne des filles de Scedase, ^ qui n'etait qu'un paysan de Leuctres, soit moins digne d'elle que Fassassinat d'Agamemnon par sa femme ou la vengeance de cette mort par Oreste sur sa propre mere.»^ It is hard to realize that it is Gorneille who is speaking. We imagine ourselves in the presence of a Diderot or a Lessing. Why then did not Gorneille produce a bourgeois tragedy, which should be a masterpiece and lake its place side by side with the aristocratic tragedies, which brought him immortal -renown? There are several reasons. In the first place, two schools so opposed to each other could not thrive at the same time and as we know, the taste of the seventeenth century, under the influence of the Renaissance was purely aristocratic : secondly, there was a general feeling not only in France but in other countries, that only kings and queens were entitled to appear in tragedy. Scaliger* the century before had declared the only proper persons to be «reges, principes», and Opitz ^ in Germany under the influence of Scaliger, to be sure, had expressed the same opinion long before Gottsched became the apostle of the French classic tragedy across the Rhine. In Spain, Lope de Vega « had defined the royal character of the personages as one of the fundamental difl'erences which distin- guish tragedy from comedy. Public sentiment was entirely in favor of the aristocratic * Aristotle. 2 See Hardy : Scedase, ou VHospitalite Violee in Le Theatre d' Alexander Hardy, vol. I. Stengel edition. Marburg 1884. 3 fipltre a Monsieur de Zuylichem. See Oeuvres de Gorneille V, p. 404. * Julius Caesar Scaliger. Poetices I 6. Lyons 1561. 5 Martini Opitii, Buch von der deutschen Poeterey. Breslau 1624. « Lope de Vega. Rimas con el nuevo arte de hacer comedias. Madrid 1609. — 23 - tragedy, and yet Gorneille ventured for once to defy the accep- ted canons of good taste. He introduced Don Sanche d'Aragon on the stage disguised as the son of an ordinary fisherman. — The aristocratic public of the year 1651 resented this intru- sion, and refused to bestow serious attention on such a hero, even if he did prove at the end to be the king of Aragon. Such glorification of a menial looked like too great a menace to royalty. «Alors on avait a Paris les guerres de la Fronde, et Ton voyait en m^me temps briller a Londres un homme ne obscur, pret a mettre son titre de Milord Protecteur au dessus de celui des rois. On ne crut pas devoir encourager de tels exemples ; et Don Sanche, fils d'un pecheur ou cru tel dans la piece, parut ressembler beaucoup trop a ce fils d'un brasseur de biere, devant qui tombaient ou pliaient les tetes couronnees. Cromwell tua Don Sanche».^ And Gorneille never again attemp- ted to introduce a bourgeois element into the heroic drama. The «personne de notre condition a qui nous ressemblons tout a fait» was thus banished forever from the French classic stage. In adapting Maffei's MSrope to the French stage, Voltaire found himself forced to make numerous modifications to suit the cultivated taste of the eighteenth century, one of the most important being to eliminate the shocking idea of the Italian author in allowing his hero to be mistaken at first for a robber. x\ristocrat through and through, Voltaire again, in criticising the Julius Oaesar of Shakespeare, expressed it as his opinion that only an English audience would endure a chorus of artisans and Roman plebeians. 2 And Voltaire knew his nation. Royal or illustrious birth was a prime requisite of the heroes and heroines of the classic French tragedy. Being of royal or illustrious birth, it is easy to see that the personages who figure in the dramas of Gorneille had to 1 Frangois de Neufchateau. L'Esprit du grand Gorneille. Paris 1819. 2 Voltaire. Discours sur la tragedie. - 24 — have royal or illustrious names, by which we must also understand in the seventeenth century, names pleasing to French ears. Conscientious worker that he was, even to the slightest detail, Gorneille deUberated long and carefully over this point. Undoubtedly his sad experience with Pertharite made him resolve to he more circumspect in future. Voltaire attributes the failure of Pertharite to the revolting names, as he regards them, of the personages. «Les noms seuls des heros de cetle piece revoltent)) he says : «c'est une Eduige, un Grimoald, un Unulphe .... Un Unulphe, un Grimoald annoncent d'ail- leurs une tragedie bien lombarde. G'est une grande erreur de croire que tons les noms barbares de Goths, de Lombards, de Francs puissent faire sur la scene le m^me effet qu'Achille, Iphig^nie, Andromaque, Electre, Oreste, Pyrrhus. Boileau se moque avec raison de celui qui pour son heros va choisir Ghildebrand*.^ Perhaps some such comments at the time of the fiasco of Pertharite, may have reached Gorneille's ears. In an}/ case, on his return to the theatre, he speaks quite at length on the subject of the names which he gave to his two original heroines of Sertorius, Aristie and Viriate. In his remarks Au Lecteur, he tells us that he changed the name of Antistie to Aristie, because the latter was more pleasing to the ear. The name of Viriate he invented on his own responsibility, deriving it from the name of the illustrious Viriatus, king of Lusitania. In like manner, Brueys,^ fifteen years after Gorneille's death, showed his reverence for the teachings of the master by naming one of his heroines Gabinie, after her father Gabinius, the name of Susanna, handed down by history seeming to him not to have «assez de noblesse pour le theatre*. The name of Ildione in Attila passed through several transformations before it reached its present state. Voltaire writes in his commentaries ^ Voltaire. Remarques sur Pertharite. 2 See Jusserand. Shakespeare en France in Cosmopolis for Nov. 1896. — 25 — «Gorneille dans sa tragedie d'Attila, fait paraitre Hildione, une princesse soeur d'un pretendu roi de France ; elle s'appelait Hildecone a la premiere representation; on changea en suite ce nom ridicule».^ Marty-Laveaux inquires «Qu'em-ce M si Gorneille, au lieu d'adopter a peu pres, en le francisant le nom d'lldico, qui lui ^tait donne par Priscus et Jornandes, etit connu les traditions du Nord et choisi les formes plus pures de Hiltgund, Hiltegunt, Hildegonde, qu'elles nous ont con- servees)).^ Gorneille, however, was quite right in softening down the name of his heroine, and above all in banishing the harsh guttural from it. The year 1667 had come, a new era had dawned. Racine was already in full competition with Gor- neille and had set a new fashion with his melodious Greek names. Subordinate to the heroines of the classic French drama, were the confidants who followed in their train, a colorless set of personages, as far as the action of the play was concerned, but important as a piece of necessary paraphernalia. In the Greek tragedy, there were two kinds of confidant, the private- confidant and the chorus, or public confidant. In the French tragedy, the the chorus continued to be employed by Jodelle, Garnier, Montchrestien and in a few pieces by Hardy, who nevertheless, declared it to be superfluous. In the drama of Gor- neille, the chorus does not appear, its functions being trans- ferred to the confidant or suivante , who thus assumes the duties of the double set of characters in the Greek tragedy. These duties, hewever, are not very exacting. The confidant merely accompanies her mistress and interposes a remark here and there, that the heroine may rest from what would other- wise become a too long and fatiguing monologue. A very si- milar function is still seen in the confidants of the early operas 1 Voltaire. Remarques sur Attila. 2 Marty-Laveaux. Oeuvres de Gorneille vol. VII p. 102. - 26 — of Verdi and Donizetti, who, in like manner, sing a judicious note now and then, to relieve the prima donna. The confidant of Gorneille, by an occasional hint, also enables the heroine to change the theme of her conversation. Oftentimes too, a re- mark of the confidant is introduced to admit of one of those sharp pithy retorts, which are so characteristic of the drama of Gorneille. The epoch-making ccMoi !)>^ of Medee and the «Qu'il mouriit \y>'^ of Horace are made possible precisely by the naive question of the confidant. The force of the retort, the reaction, as it were^ throws her back into her former insigni- ficance. , In a small number of plays, ^ Gorneille slill allowed his confidant to recite the epic narration, which gathers up the threads of the tragedy, apprises the spectator of the downfall of the wrongdoer, or announces the tragic event which brings the play to a close. This prerogative of the confidant was highly approved of by Dryden, who, as an admirer of the French school, naturally shared the aversion of cultivated French people for a scene of bloodshed or violence on the open stage. And this, be it said, was a matter of no small consequence in the dramatic art of the seventeenth century in France. The confidant of the Gorneille tragedy was on the whole, however, hardly more than a lay figure, and thus she remained with but few exceptions, such as the Oenone of Racine's Phedre, as long as the classic drama held sway on the French stage. That her very inertness was a mark of bienseance, can be seen by the severe manner of Voltaire, who reprimanded ' M6d6e 1 V 320. 2 Horace 3 VI 1021. 3 In Horace 3 H Julie announces the victory of Rome over Alba, and thus brings to an end the first of the double actions of which the play IS composed; in Theodore 5' III, Stephanie relates the death of Theodore, Didyme and Marcelle; in Sur6na 5 V, Ormene announces the murder of onrena. 27 — Gorneille severely for allowing two subalterns to open the play of Rodogtme, and thus at the outset monopolize the attention of a public accustomed to be greeted by some pompous perso- nage of the blood royal. 2. The appropriate number. The second point which a glance at the casts of Gorneille's tragedies brings to our notice is the preponderance of plays intro- ducing two heroines. Eighteen of the twenty-four dramas under consideration have two heroines, five have three heroines and one alone has but one heroine. It is, therefore evident that Gorneille had a preference for two heroines, as the proper number. This is proved by his own words and by an exami- nation of several plays in which his originality was espe- cially drawn upon. In working over the subject matter of Sertorins, Gorneille was confronted by the absence of female characters. But he speedily surmounted this difficulty. «Gomme il ne m'a fourni aucunes femmes,» he says «j'ai ete oblige de recourir a I'in- vention pour en introduire deiLX, assez compatibles I'une et I'aulre avec les verites historiques a qui je me suis attach^. L'une a vecu de ce temps-la ; c'est la premiere femme de Pompee, qu'il repudia pour entrer dans I'alliance de Sylla, par le manage d'Emilie, fille de sa femme L'autre femme est une pure idee de mon esprit, mais qui ne laisse pas d'avoir aussi quelque fondement dans I'histoire. EUe nous apprend que les Lusilaniens appelerent Serlorius d'Afrique pour etre leur chef centre le parti de Sylla ; mais elle ne nous dit point, s'ils etaient en republique ou sous une monarchie. II n y a done rien qui repugne a leur donner une reine ; et je ne la pouvois faire sortir d'un rang plus considerable que ce- — 28 — lui de Viriatus, dont je lui fais porter le nom, le plus grand homme que TEspagne ait oppose aux Romains, et le dernier, qui leur a fait tete dans ces provinces avant Sertorius.»^ From this quotation we see Gorneille's preference for two heroines, between whom the spectator is called upon to divide his interest. At the same time we see the requirement of royal birth again in force. ^ The Oedipe of Corneille furnishes us with another example of the necessity of two heroines. In the Greek and Latin ver- sions, where Jocaste is the only female figure, Corneille was disturbed by the absence of the love element. Love was not, as we^ shall see, the predominating element of his tragedy; indeed he was himself opposed to all sentimental love in tra- gedy. But he knew the taste of the French public and was therefore compelled te recognize the love element as one of the «principaux agrements, qui sont en possession de gagner la voix publique . . . Ces considerations m'onl fait .... inlroduire I'heureux episode de Thesee et de Dirce» ^ this last character being introduced as the daughter of Jocaste. Voltaire experienced the same difficulty as Corneille in treating the subject of Oedipus. Like Corneille, he had a sense of the fitness of things, and realized that there was no place in Sophocles' gloomy masterpiece for the introduction of a lan- guishing love element. But as he tells us, he was obliged, in order to keep peace with the «amoureuse» of the troupe, to represent the tragic Jocaste, as complicated in an insipid love intrigue with Philoctete. Corneille got around this difficulty by his favorite device of introducing a second heroine for the purpose. Likewise in SopJmdshe, notwithstanding the models fur- nished him in the previous works of Montchreslien (1596) and ^ Sertorius. Au Lecteur. 2 Examen d'Oedipe. - 29 — Mairet (1629), Corneille introduced in addition to the Cartha- ginian queen, celebrated in history, a rival heroine in the person of Eryxe, queen of Getulia, of whom he proudly says <(G'est une reine de ma fagon.» Finally in the tragedy of Tite et Berenice, which always invites comparison with the Berenice of Racine, we fmd Cor- neille dividing the interest between two heroines. Racine's Berenice stands alone ; Gorneille's heroine has a rival, Domitie, daughter of the emperor Corbulon. The necessity of a dual heroine becomes apparent if we examine the construction of the Corneille tragedy and notice those points on which the poet laid the greatest stress. His favorite work was Rodogune, and he gives us the following reasons. «. .Gette trag^die me semble etre un pen plus a moi que celle qui Tom pr^cM^e, a cause des incidents surprenants qui sont purement de mon invention ; . . . cerlainement on pent dire que mes autres pieces out peu d'a vantages qui ne se rencontrent en celle-ci : elle a tout ensemble la beaute du sujet, la nouveaute des fictions ; la force des vers, la facilile de I'expression, la solidite du raisonnement, la chaleur des passions, les tendresses de I'amour et de I'amilie ; et cet heu- reux assemblage est menag^ de sorte qu'elle s'eleve d'acte en acte. » ^ Here we find the requisites of a good tragedy accor- ding to Corneille, and that the complication of the plot was in his estimation one of its chief merits, can be seen h"^ the complacency with which he speaks of HeracUus^ a work so intricate as to be nearly unintelligible, and with perfect reason declared by Boileau to be a cdogogriphe.s^ «Cette tragedic)) he says «a encore plus d'invention que celle de Rodogune, . . . le po^me est si embarrass^ qu'il de- mande une merveilleuse attention. J'ai vu de fort bons esprits, et des personnes des plus qualifi^es de la cour, se plaindre 1 Examen de Rodogune. 2 Bolaeana 1742 p. 111. — 30 — de ce que sa representation fatiguait autant I'esprit qu'une <^tude s^rieuse.» ^ Thus we see that a complicated plot was ^regarded as an essential in Gorneille's dramatic system. And the complicated plot naturally brought with it a complicated set of characters ; hence the two heroines, standing face to face and taxing the divided sympathies of the spectator. We have already compared the two Berenice tragedies of 1670. It is precisely in the simplicity of the version of Racine that 1 the work of the younger poet distinguishes itself from the ' drama of Gorneille. Racine had no sympathy for the methods of Gorneille in this respect. In the preface to his tragedy, he refers slightingly, though without mentioning any names, to his illustrious predecessor. «I1 n'y a que le vraisemblable que touche dans la tragedie. Et qu'elle vraisemblance y a-t-il qu'il arrive en un jour une multitude de choses, qui pour- raient a peine arriver en. plusieurs semaines? II y en a qui pensent que cette simplicity est une marque de pen d'invention. lis ne songent pas qu'au contraire toute I'invention consiste a faire quelque chose de rien et que tout ce grand nombre d'in- cidents a loujours ^t^ le refuge des poetes qui ne sentoient dans leur g^nie ni assez d'abondance ni assez de force pour attacher durant cinq actes leurs spectateurs par une action simple soutenue de la violence des passions, de la beauts des sentiments et de I'^l^gance de rexpression.»2 But in simplifying the construction of the tragedy of Gor- neille, in banishing what he would perhaps have regarded as the superfluous second heroine, Racine would have been mak- ing too radical a change in the drama of Gorneille. The two heroines introduced by Gorneille had other reasons for existence, as we shall see, if we consider the methods which the poet used, of having them appear to the best advantage. 1 Examen d'Heraclius. 2 Racine. Preface de B6r6nice 1670. — 31 — What are the most striking scenes in which Gorneille's female characters appear? The student of the classic tragedy ^ will recognize them at once as the monologues, the scenes of complaint between the heroine and her confidant, and those peculiar scenes, where the two heroines meet to defy each other, to overwhelm each other with magnanimity, or to discuss some fine point, in which they can display their skill in argument. Let us consider the eight following works with reference to these special features : Le Cid, as the masterpiece of Gor- neille and the one on which his fame rests ; Horace, the first tragedy purely (ccorneliennc)) ; Rodogune, the poet's favorite work ; Perthariie, the failure of which caused his temporary retirement from the theatre; Oedijpe, the work with which he re- turned to theatre ; Sertorius, the w^ork, in which the creation of female characters drew entirely on the poet's powers of invention. Tite et BSrenice, the piece in which the tragic methods of Corneille and Racine came into competition ; Surena, the last play of Corneille. In Le Cid, we find the following relations : Ghimene confers with her confidant II, 3 III, 5 IV. The Infante confers with hers HI, 2 V, 5 III. The two confer together 2 III, 411, The Infante has a monologue I III, 5 II. Ghimene has no monologue, the one which Rodrigue delivers describing Ghimene's state of mind as well as his own. In Horace : Sabine confers with her confidant, II, 311. Gamille confers with hers, 1 II. Sabine and Gamille confer together, 3 III, 3 IV. Sabine has a monologue, 3 I. Gamille has a monologue, 4 IV. In Rodogitne : Rodogune confers with a confidant, I V. — 32 — Gleopalre confers with her confidant, 2 II, 4 IV, 5 II. Rodogune and Gl^opatre come together, 5 IV. Rodogune has a monologue, 3 III. Gle^opatre has a monologue, 2 1, 4 V, 4 VII, 5 I. In Pcrtharite: Rodelinde has no confidant. Eduige has no confidant. Rodelinde and Eduige defy each other I II, 3 II, 5 III, No monologues. In Oedipe: Dirc^ confers with her confidant 2 II, 2 III. Jocaste has no scene with her confidant. Dirce and Jocaste come together 3 II. Dirc6 has a monologue 3 I. In Sertorius : Viriate confers with her confidant, 2 I, 2 III. Aristie has no confidant. Viriate and Aristie come together, 5 L No monologues. In Tite et BMnice: Domitie conplains to her confidant, I I, 2 VII. B^r^nice confers with her minister, 3 IV, 4 I. Domitie and B6r^nice come together, 3 III. No monologues. In Surina : Eurydice confers with her confidant, 1 I, 4 I. Palmis has no confidant. Eurydice and Palmis come together, 1 II, 4 II, 5 IV. No monologues. A comparison of the plays in the above scheme shows us thai, whereas Gorneille was more or less variable in his ap- plication of monologues and scenes with confidants, the scene — 33 — between the two rival heroines became a fixed part of his system. The very nature of the Gorneille drama required the the heroines to meet and fence with each other, so to speak, before the play could come to a satisfactory denotement.^ In the matter of monologues, more hberly was possible. Gorneille allowed himself to be governed by the prevailing tendencies. In his early dramas, they are frequent enough. The actors desired them, because they thought that they of- fered superior opportunities for the display of their talents. Thus it was that Emilie opens the tragedy of Ginna, with a long and spirited monologue of fifty two lines, a defiant tirade threatening the life of Augustus, which, it is easy to see, must have met with the unbounded approval of the ambitious women of the Fronde. But on the whole, monologues disappeared gradually from the works of Gorneille, as well as from those of the later classic dramatists. La TMhaide and the PJiedre of Racine offer some of the last monologues to be found in the classic tragedy. Actors and dramatists alike would seem to have come over to the opinion of Hardy, who, long before Gorneille's day, had done his best to do away with monologues which hindered the movement of the play, and contributed to it nothing but wearisome monotony. Voltaire even tells us that the actresses in his time had ceased to recite the monologue of Emilie, to which we have referred, and that he was obhged to insist upon the restoration of it, on account of the many beauties which it contains.^ The scenes between the two heroines, however, could not be so easily spared. Although in themselves they are often- 1 For further instances see Pompee 5 II, Theodore 2 IV, Heraclius 2 I, 2 III, 2 VII, Andromede 3 II, Nicomede 5 VI, La Toison d'Or 3 IV, Sophonisbe 1 III, 3 II, 5 IV, Othon 4 IV, Agesilas 2 VII, 4 IV, Attila 3 III, Psyche 4 V, Pulcherie 3 II, 5 I. 2 Remarques sur Cinna. 3 — 34 — times mere scenes of conversation, to use the expression of Vol- taire,^ who condemned Ihem as such, they nevertheless pos- sessed the advantage of bringing two aristocratic ladies to gether in such a way as to allow them to shine in their own reflection and indirectly suggest by their salHes the brilHant women of the salons of the times. In the proud self conscious- ness, too, with which they assert themselves, they embody the spirit of the age. y Gorneille had two methods of treating the scenes between his heroines, the long tirade and the pithy dialogue. The first is well illustrated by the scene between his two original he- roines in Sertorius 51. Arislie begins with a tirade of thirty two lines, Viriate replies with one of twenty seven ; Aristie then has one line which allows Viriate to take up the retort closing the scene with a tirade of nineteen lines. The second method, that of breaking up the line into short pithy utterances, which sometimes admit of two re- marks and two retorts, all within the fixed number of syl- lables, is well shown by two examples in SojjJionishe. The first is in the scathing tone of high comedy. Sophonisbe. Avez-vous en ces lieux, quel que commerce? Eryxe. Aucun, Sophonisbe. D'ou le savez-vous done ? D'un peu de sens commun : Sophonisbe 1 III 169-70. The second is in the heroic style in which Gorneille ex- celled, and in which his original queen, Eryxe, appeared to special advantage. Sophonisbe. Vous parlez un peu haut. 1 Remarques sur Sertorius, See 5 I. Et captive, de plus. - 35 — ifiryxe. Je snis amante et reine. Sophonisbe. Eryxe. On va briser ma chaine; Et la captivite ne pent abattre un coeur Qui se voit assure de celni du vainqueur: Sophonisbe 1 III 227-30. These scenes became a fixed part of the French classic system. The famous ccMoi !» of Medee, coming with volcanic force at the end of an otherwise harmless Alexandrine verse uttered by the confidant, had proved the efficacy of this de- vice in tragedy. This terse dialogue, however, was not an invention of Gorneille. His predecessors had made use of it, though not with the same telHng effect. To find the sources of it, it is necessary to go back to the beginnings of French poetry. In the earliest French drama extant, the Mystere d'Adam, an Anglo-Norman play of the end of the twelfth century, we find the temptation of Adam and FiVe developed as follows : Eve begins: Manjue, Adam, ne sez que est pernum go bien que nus est prest Adam. Est il tant bon? Eva. Tu le savras nel poez saver, si'n gusteras Adam, j'en duit. Eva. lai le. Adam, n'en feras pas Eva. del demorer fais tu que las Adam. E jol prendrai. Eva. manjue t'en par ce savras e mal e bien jon manjerai prerairemeut Adam E je apres. Eva. Seurement. Mystere d'Adam, Edition Lagarche, Tours 1854; Edition Palustre, Paris 1877. As another example of the fondness for this vivacious style of conversation in mediaeval poetry, let us quote the meeting between Alexandre and King Artus in the Cliges of Ghrestien de Troies. — 36 — «Don estes vos?> — «De Grece somes » «De Grece ?> — «Voire.» — , we shall find that Gorneille was rebuked by this body for allowing Ghimene to yield to her love for Rod- rigue. In a moment of weakness, she admits her love for the hero. The Academic maintained that Rodrigue should have been the one to yield, that he should have allowed his love to j triumph over his duty, and that the heroine should have gal- lantly been permitted to hold her supremacy to the end. As we have said, Gorneille was ever ready to take suggestions, if he found that they came from a recognized authority, and perhaps this is why in the long list of his tragedies, we find 1 Lettre a M. de Saint Evremond 1666. 2 Sophonisbe. Au Lecteur. — 40 — the women dominating, domineering over the men. Cinna had every reason to call his beloved Emilie an «aimable inhumainex).^ -» In discussing the character of Flaminius in Nicomede, Gorneille reveals to us another idea, which influenced him in the development of his characters, that of embodying in them some abstract quality or historical meaning. Flaminius, for instance, stands for the imperious foreign policy of the Roman senate under the republic, 180 B. G. As Gorneille says ((G'est le caractere que j'ai donne a leur republique en la personne de leur ambassadeur Flaminius. i>^ It is not to be supposed, however, that the great public were conscious of any abstract significance in the personages in Gorneille's tragedies. They could hardly be held responsible for the political transactions of Rome in the Orient. It was only the more cultivated, who were expected to read between the lines. Balzac, it will be remembered, showed his superior perspicacity by seeing in Emilie the very embodiment of the passion of liberty at Rome. One other trait of characters peculiar to Gorneille remains to be spoken of, the striving for admiration on the part of his heroes and heroines. Of Nicomede the poet says «Ge heros de ma fagon sort un pen des regies de la tragedie, en ce qu'il ne cherche point a faire pi tie par I'exces de ses malheurs, mais le succes a montre, que la fermete des grands coeurs, qui n'excite que I'admiralion dans Tame du spectateur, est quelquefois aussi agreable que la compassion que notre art nous commande de mendier pour leurs miseres.»^ The heroine -of Gorneille must, therefore, command admiration. Such are the requisites of the heroine of Gorneille, as w^e gather them from among the scattering remarks of the poet. Gorneille does not formulate his ideas in a single chapter of 1 Cinna 3 III, 905. 2 Nieomede. Au Lecteur. 3 ibid. — 41 — concisely expressed rules. He leaves us to take note of his remarks in passing and to prove them by observing the ap- plication of them in his dramatic works. It will, therefore, be worth our while, before entering upon a detailed examination of the plays themselves to state once more briefly the ideas of Gorneille. His ideal heroine must first compel the admiration of the spectator by her devotion to her country. She must be guided in her choice of a husband by unbounded personal ambition, and she must be possessed of keen political insight. Secondly, she must have an abstract or historical signifi- cance, apart from representing merely a being of flesh and blood. Finally she must be inspired by revenge in the solution of the problem which places her in the drama. In the above order, let us see with what consistency Gor- neille applied his theories in practice. First as to the patrio- tic, ambitious, political character of his heroines. The first heroine, who appears on the scene, the Gr^use^ of Medee^ refuses to bestow her hand on her lover, fearing that such an alliance might not conduce to the good of the State. Ghiinene^ demands the punishment of Rodrigue for the welfare of the commonwealth. In the interest of her country too, she becomes reconciled to his pardon.^ The good of the State, the welfare of the fatherland are likewise, kept in view by other heroines of Gorneille. 1 Et vous reconnoitrez que je ne vous prefers Que le bien de VJEtat, mon pays et mon pere. Medee 2 V 673—4. 2 Immolez, disje, Sire, au bien de tout VJ^tat Tout ce qu'enorgueillit un si haut attentat, Le Cid 2 VIII 695—6. 3 Rodrigue a des vertus que je ne puis hair; Rodrigue a VJEtat devient si necessaire, 4^ Le Cid 5 VII 1803-9. — 42 — Andromede,^ Dirce,^ Sophonisbe^ and Pulcherie'' unite in glorifying the idea of dying for Iheir countries sake. The love of country coupled with personal ambition is well illustrated by the Infante,^ who overcomes her secret passion for Ro- drigue by the reflection that any other than a monarch would be unworthy of her hand. Her example is followed by a long line of heroines who concur in expressing the same opinion. Laodice,^ Dirc^,' Viriate,^ Elpinice,^ Aglatide,^^ Honorie^^ and 1 Heureuse, Si le salut public peut naitre de ma perte ! Malheureuse que je ne suis, pas la premiere et i'unique Qai rende a votre EtaX la surete publique ! Andromede 2 IV 692—9. 2 II est encore plus doux de mourir pour son roL Oedipe 2 III 638. 3 J'immolai ma tendresse au Men de ma patrie: Sophonisbe 1 II 43. * Je sacrifierai tout au bonheur de VEtat. Pulcherie 4 II 1224. ^ Tout autre qu'un monarque est indigne de moi. Le Cid I II 100. 6 Je suis reine, seigneur; . . la reine d'Armenie Est due a I'heritier du roi de Bithynie, Nicomede 1 I 57 — 64. ■^ Et jamais sur ce coeur on n'avancera rien Qu'en me donnant un sceptre, ou me rendant le mien. Oedipe 2 I 495-96. ^ • le glorieux dessein De m'affermir au trone en lui donnant la main : Sertorius 2 I 391—2. 9 Cotys est roi, ma soeur Assure de mon coeur que son trone lui donne, Agesilas 1 II 11 — 13. 10 Et lorsqu'on vous destine un roi pour votre epoux, J'en veux un aussi bien que vous. Agesilas 1 I 51 — 52. 11 Enfin, je veux un roi : Attila 2 II 490. — 43 — Pulcherie,^ in marrying are all imbued with the passion of self-aggrandizement. The ambition of Gleopatre ^ is to be misi- tress of the world, even if for only a day. The aim of the Pulcherie ^ of 1647 is to see the whole world at her feet. Gleopatre ^ tells us that princes do not deign to yield to the voice of love. This sentiment is taken up byMandane^ and echoed again by the Pulch^rie^ of 1672. Dirc^' denounces the match planned for her by her step-father as a political scheme. Aristie ^ proudly boasts that her attempts to charm the old hero Sertorius are merely made in the interests of politics. And finally as if to establish once for all the true ideal of a tragic heroine, according to Gorneille, Mandane cries out : N'aimons plus que par politique Agesilas 4 II 1439. It is perfectly true, as Hemon repeatedly shows, that the later plays of Gorneille degenerated into mere political tangles. 1 II falloit m'apporter la main d^un empereur, PulcMrie 3 III 924. 2 Ne durat-il qu'un jour, ma gloire est sans seconde D'etre du moins un jour la maitresse du monde, Pompee 2 I 429— 30» 3 Je sais qu'il m'appartient, ce trone ou tu te sieds, Que c'est a moi d'y voir tout le monde a mes pieds ; HeracUus 1 II 143—4. * Charmion L'amour certes sur vous a bien peu de puissance*. Gleopatre Les princes ont cela de leur haute naissance. Pompee, 2 I 369—70. o Mais un grand coeur doit etre au dessus de l'amour. Agesilas, 4 11 1421. 6 Le trone met une Time au-dessus des tendresses Pukherie 1 I 114. ^ J'ai vu sa politique Politique nouvelle ! Oedipe 2 II 526-30. 8 . . . . . . . en cet hymen l'amour n'a point de part, Qu'il n'est qu'un pur effet de noble politique, Sertorius 1 III 828—9. • — 44 — in which it does not seem to be the poet's object to interest the heart of a spectator. Pohtics form the basis of the entire play ; the heroines seem to have no other idea in mind. Although this characteristic is peculiar to the later plays, it is no new feature in them. We have already indicated the touch of poli- tics in Medee and the Oid, We have only to examine in order each and every play which belongs to the first period of Corneille to find that the political germ was there from the first and had an irresistible attraction for Corneille. In Horace Sabine^ subdues her emotions as a wife by re- flecting that the contest between Alba and Rome is necessary for the good of the State. Gamilles likewise expresses her ad- miration for her father for placing the welfare of Rome above the personal happiness of his daughter. Ernilie, ^ though ap- parently avenging a personal wrong in seeking the life of Augustus, does not neglect to make it clear that it is her chief work to free Rome from imperial rule, and to set up a republican form of government. The empress Livie* declares that even a murder is justifiable if it be committed on behalf of the State. The confidant Stratonice^ shudders as she sees in the Christian martyr Polyeucte an enemy to the State. 1 Rome, Je sais que ton Etat encore en sa naissance. Ne sauroit sans la guerre, affermir sa puissance ; Horace 1 I 33—40. ^ Ne prefere-t-il point VEtat a sa famille? Ne regarde-t-il point Rome plus que sa fille? Horace 1 III 255-56. 3 «Et faisons publier par toute Tltalie : La liberte de Rome est I'oeuvre d'Emilie: . .» Ginna 1 II 109—110. * Tons ces crimes d'Etat qu'on fait pour la couronne. Le ciel nous en absout alors qu'il nous la donne, Cmna 5 II 1609—10. 5 C'est I'ennemi commun de VEtat et des dieux, Polyeucte 3 II 780. — 45 — Gleopatre^ assures her twin sons that her constant striving has been to establish them firmly on the throne ; Rodogune ^ regards herself as a victim to the cause of her country. Dona Isabelle ^ frankly confesses that she marries simply because she deems such a step necessary to the good of the State. In a word the heroines of Gorneille one and all are tho- roughly tinctured with politics. It is therefore, but a step farther to see in them a series of abstract symbols, represen- ting certain political phases in history. Desjardins* has shown that Gorneille's dramas taken together form a connected history of Rome from the earliest times down to the barbaric inva- sions in the fifth century. As Gorneille himself tells us that he purposely made Flaminius represent the foreign policy of the Roman senate under the republic, and a^s Balzac, as we have said, had called Emilie the very embodiment of the passion of liberty, it is quii^li^obable that Gorneille always did keep the abstract political significance of his heroines in mind. It is a common objection to them, as a class, that they are lacking in the real qualities of the concrete human being. From the point of view of Desjardins, Horace treats of those days in the history of Rome, which established forever the supremacy of the eternal city about 660 B. G. Gamille would, therefore, represent Rome and Sabine Alba Longa. SopJionisbe deals with the Punic Wars and the political policy of Rome in Africa 203 B. G. Sophonisbe represents the soul of Garthage and the patriotism of the family of Barca. 1 Pour vous sauver VEtat, que n'eusse-je pu faire ? Bodogune 2 III 539. 2 Je suivois mon destin en victime di'Etat. Bodogune 3 III 874. 3 Mais I'amour de VEtat, plus fort que de moi-meme, Cherche, au lieu de I'objet le plus doux a mes yeux, Le plus digne heros de regner en ces lieux ; Bon Sanche 2 II 566—68. * Desjardins. Le Grand Gorneille Historien. Paris 1861. — 46 — Eryxe is the personification of Africa jealous of the su- premacy of Carthage. Nicomede deals with the foreign poHcy of the Roman se- nate under the Republic 180 B. C. Laodice queen of Armenia associated together with the hero Nicomede, personifies the spirit of heroic opposition to the increasing power of Rome abroad. SeHorius deals with the civil wars 79 B. C. Aristie re- presents the Roman aristocracy. Viriate stands for tlie liberty of Spain. Siirhia treats of the same epoch and represents the stubborn resistance of the Parthian Empire against the encro- achments of Rome, Surena, the conqueror of Crassus in 53 B. C. together with Eurydice, personifies this stubborn resis- tance. Pompee deals with the events following the defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia 48 B. G. Gorn^lie, widow of Pompey,^ represents the Roman aristocracy, Cleopatre the ambition of Egypt. Cinna deals with the foundation of the Roman Empire about 10 B. G. Emilie represents the opposition to Augustus, the spirit of liberty with which the republican aristocracy were imbued. OtJion treats of the military revolution which followed the fall of the Augustan family 68 A. D. In this play, Plautine and her lover Othon stand for the old empire triumphing by aid of the pretorian guard. Gamille, niece of Galba, repre- sents the tendency to a re-establishment of the republic. In Tite et Berenice we find Rome under the Flavian dynasty. Berenice is the impersonation of Judea. In Polyeucte we behold in the hero and his wife Pau- line the dawn of Christianity at Rome 250 A. D. Theodore in the reign of Diocletian, 284 — 305, is the perso- nification of religious martyrdom, Marcelle representing the spirit of religious persecution. — 47 — In the Pulcherie of 1672, we see the remnants of the proud spirit of Rome in the period between the commencement of the barbaric invasions and the coming of Attila 414 — 451. In Attila is represented the overwhelming invasion of the Northern tribes. Honorie impersonates the fall of Rome, lldione the rise of Gaule, of that fair France which Corneille . was destined see at the height of her glory. In the foregoing scheme, we thus have a more or less connected series of the various phases and epochs of Roman history, represented by the heroines of Corneille. It is a ques- tion, however, whether Corneille had the idea in mind at the outset of his career, to reproduce the history of Rome on the stage. To be sure, his first original piece, Horace, would seem to indicate the beginnings of such a scheme dealing as it does, with the earliest events in Roman history. But his next piece is by no means a continuation, of such a plan. Cinna, as is well known, deals with events which took place nearly seven hundred and fifty years later. Furthermore, Soplionisle, the play which stands next in chronological order^ to Horace, though at a long distance, was not written until twenty-three years after the production of Horace, And it should be remem- bered that Corneille, in the meantime, had abandoned play- writing for ever, as he himself supposed, in 1652. It is more reasonable to suppose that Corneille was attracted to Rome rather than to Greece as his scene of action, by the very nature of Roman history, extending as it did from 753 B. C. down into the Middle Ages to 476 A. D. and furnishing an infinitely greater wealth and variety of historic material than did the history of ancient Greece, which came to an end long before the Christian era. Further, Corneille must have found an extra- ordinary charm in the insatiable political ambition of Rome ; for this is the character with which he most pronouncedly endowed his heroines. Even in Oedipe which in the grand and gloomy original has not the remotest resemblance to the poli- — 48 — tical tragedy of Gorneille, lie could not resist the temptation to introduce a scheming poHtical princess though he claims to have created the character of Dirce in order to introduce the necessary love episode, to which his public had become accustomed. Be that as it may, Gorneille would seem to have been unable to draw the line between love and politics. Pauline is his only heroine who portrays to us in a convincing manner a faithful wife, and a woman. ' — The remaining plays of Gorneille fall out of the Roman scheme, but that does not prevent the heroines who appear in them from embodying some general political idea, and as a rule, they personify some noble idea. The women in Gor- neille's later plays, even though rivals, fairly overwhelm each other with magnanimity. A notable exception, however to the lofty type of character developed by Gorneille is to be found in the Gleopatre of Rodogmie. Lessing was right in calling her a monster. She certainly was the personification of (da passion du pouvoir poussee jusqu'a la rage et jusqu'au crime. »^ ^ The third element, which Gorneille introduced into his heroines, was the thirst for revenge. In the seeking of glorious revenge for wrongs suffered, the poet found what he regarded as an ideal means of making his women heroic. In this parti- cular, the heroines of Gorneille would seem to take on a ge- nuinely tragic aspect, for the poet gives most of them a pro- blem which, according to the heroine's idea, can only be solved by the shedding of blood. Gorneille employed two methods of revenge, by which the heroine might solve her problem in a way which should redound to her glory. According to the first method, the heroine declares that she will marry the man who will avenge her wrongs ; according to the second, she under- takes the revenge herself without the intervention of a third Petit de JuUeville. Le Theatre en France. 1889, p. 121. — 49 — person. The intention of the heroine would, therefore seem to be tragic. The spectator not versed in the Gorneille tragedy begins to anticipate a thrilHng action. And here it should be said that we must not spend too much time in insisting on the purely abstract side of the Gorneille tragedy and its hero- ines. There is no doubt the poet found a great charm in invest- ing his characters with a hidden meaning, but if we read the Examens of Gorneille, we cannot but see that he regarded himself primarily as dramatist. His heroes undoubtedly stood for abstract or political ideas in many cases, and by the elite of society in the seventeenth century they were appreciated and enjoyed as such. But to the mass of theatre goers, un- versed in Roman history, the plays of Gorneille were regarded merely as plays. Indeed, as the poet himself freely confesses, he took great liberties with history for the sake of making an effective play, ^ and in this method of procedure he was followed by Racine and Voltaire. Dryden^ also expresses great admiration for Gorneille's skill in manipulating the facts of history. Gorneille availed himself to the full extent of the poet's - license, and in more than one place he refers to the ignorance of the public in matters of history and geography, and thereby excuses himself for what might otherwise seem to be a too bold abuse of poetic license on his part. In speaking of the change, which he sometimes made in the circumstances of history, Gorneille says : cdl y a quelque apparence de presumer que la memoire de I'auditoire, qui les aura lues autrefois ne s'y sera pas si fort attachee qu'il s'apergoive assez du change- ment.» ^ Again in discussing the changes necessitated by the dramatization of the historical matter of iSertorms Gorneille 1 Examen de Rodogune. 2 Dryden. Essay of Dramatic Poesy 1668. 3 Discours de la Tragedie. — 50 — speaks of «rauditeur, qui communemenl n'a qu'une teinture superficielle de rhistoire.i> ^ — We see therefore, that Corneille's object was to make an effeclive and interesting play. Leaving aside, therefore, the abstract element in his heroines, let us consider them as con- crete human beings of flesh and blood. Bear in mind that the heroines of Corneille have in common one glorious ideal, the preservation and enhancement of their honor (gloire), and they compel admiration by the boldness with which they seek their revenge. We have called attention to two methods by which Corneille allows his heroines to solve their problem. Let us see his manner of applying them in his dramas, and begin w^ith his most famous heroine. Ghimene is a young Spanish girl. She stands in conflict between her love for Rodrigue, and her duty, which requires her to avenge the death of her father, slain at the hand of of Rodrigue to avenge the death of his father. How does she solve her problem? What is the heroic moment in which she compels the admiration of the spectator ? It is the moment when, sacrificing everything to her duty, she comes to a full realization of her own worth by making her hand the reward to the one who shall bring her the head of Rodrigue. To the king she says : A tous vos cavaliers je demande sa tete: Oui, qu'un d'eux me I'apporte, et je suis sa conquete; J'epouse le vainquenr, si Rodrigue est puni. • Le Cid 4 V 1401—4. This is, therefore, the culminating point, the heroic mo- ment in the character of Ghimene. These are the lines which make one shudder, to use the expression of Mme. de Sevigne, 1 Sertorius. An Lecteur. — 51 — the lines which announce the arrival on the scene of a new type of tragic heroine. Ghimene quite outdazzled the other heroines, who were competing for public favor in the year 1636. The Sophonisbe of Mairet, the Cleopatre of Bense- rade, the Mariamne of Tristan I'Hermite were cast in the shade ; The condemnation of Ghimene at the hands of Scudery and the Academic was of no avail, for as Boileau tells us : En vain centre le Cid un ministere se ligue Tout Paris pour Chimene a les yeux de Rodrigue Satire IX. Corneille borrowed this solution which Chimene brings to bear on her problem directly from the Spanish original of Castro. That it impressed him as eminently appropriate for a heroine of tragedy, can be seen by examining his subsequent dramas. In China we find a young Roman girl harassed ast Chimene was by conflicting emotions. Her inclination prompts ' her to accept the ofler of marriage made her by her lover but her duty requires her to avenge the death of her father pros- cribed some twenty years before by the Emperor Augustus. How does she solve her problem ? After due deliberation, and without doubt, influenced by the great success of Chimene, Corneille decided to allow her to solve her problem in the same way, and Emilie therefore, makes her entrance upon the scene with her mind made up. To her confidant she says : Quoique j'aime Cinna, quoique mon coeur I'adore, S'il me veut posseder, Augusta doit perir : Sa tete est le scul prix dont il pent m^acquerir. Cinna 1 II 54 — 56. "Was Emilie a success? Did she realize the ideal of the great ladies before whom she appeared? It would seem so. Only a few years later, Mme. de Chevreuse, with the boldness of an Emilie, organized a conspiracy for the assassination of Cardinal Mazarin. In any case, from a theatrical point of view, Corneille was quite right in thinking that he had hit — 52 — upon a device, which it was worth while to bear in mind for future use ; indeed he was so much impressed with the idea, that in Rodogune, his favorite work, he decided to allow both his heronies to solve their problem according to this approved method which had won such applause for Ghimene and Emilie. In Rodogune, the captive princess who gives her name to the piece stands in conflict between her love for the Prince Antiochus, and her duty, which requires her to demand the head of Gl^opatre, the mother of Antiochus, for having murdered her betrothed. The complication of the situation is increased by the fact that the betrothed of Rodogune had previously been the husband of G16opatre and as such the father of Antiochus. Accordingly Rodogune agrees to marry the young prince, if he will bring her the head of his mother: Votre gloire le veut, I'amour vous le present Pour gagner Bodogune il faut venger un pere; Je me donne a ce prix : osez me meriter, Bodogune 3 IV 1033—45. Such are the revolting terms on which Rodogune agrees to bestow her hand. But we cannot blame her nor tremble for the fate of the queen Gl^opatre ; for the latter has made precisely the same proposition to Antiochus concerning Ro- dogune, of whom she is jealous for having won away the affections of her husband. Gorneille here introduces another compHcation by giving Antiochus a twin brother, Seleucus, The secret of priority of birth is known only to the mother. Who then shall succeed to the throne? Gleopatre sees her opportunity to take revenge on Rodogune. Summoning her two sons, she agrees, on her approaching abdication, to declare that one the elder who shall bring her the head of Rodogune : Si vous voulez regner, le trone est a ce prix, Entre deux fils que j'aime avec meme tendresse, Embrasser ma querelle est le seul droit d'ainesse : — 53 — La mort de Rodogune en nommera Taine. Je vous le dis encor, le trone est a ce prix; Bodogune 2 II 642—70. In Heraclius, we find another captive princess in the person of Pulcherie. She seeks glorious revenge on the em- peror, Phocas, for having murdered her father and cheated her out of her birthright. Like her predecessors, she defies the tyrant to his face with the bold threat: je serai la conquete Be quiconque a mes pieds apportera ta tete: Heraelius 3 II 1047-48. In Andromede, history givea^way to mythology, but the heroine still belongs to the school of Corneille. Instead of being oppressed by a ruthless tyrant, like Pulcherie, she is ihrea-tened by a sea-monster to whom she is exposed on the rockbound coast. What is the moment in which we are com- pelled to recognize and admire the worth of this heroine ? It is the moment when Gassiope, the proud mother of the princess, makes her daughter's hand the prize to the one who shall bring her the monster's head. To Phinee she says: Andromede est a toi si tu I'oses gagner. Andromede 3 II 916. In Don SancJie d'Aragon, which is merely a heroic co- medy, we do not look for the shedding of blood. But we do fmd the heroine, who makes her hand the reward to the one who shall bring her, not a bleeding head, but a ring which she has entrusted to the keeping of Carlos, the knight of obscure birth. Dona Isabelle would gladly bestow her hand upon this brave young courtier, but her duty compels her to make her hand the reward to the young scion of noble birth who shall get the ring away from Carlos. To her suitors, she says : — 54 — Rivaux, ambitieux, faites-lui votre cour : Qui me rapportera I'anneau que je lui donne Recevra sur-le-champ ma main et ma couronne. Don Sanche 1 III 304—6. Viewing Andromede and Dona Isabelle as slight digressions from the type of tragic heroines, we are greeted in 1652, by Eduige, princess of Lombardy, who revives the system of Gorneille once more. Incensed at Grinioald for having deserted her political cause, she agrees to marry the man, who shall murder the traitor. Proudly she proclaims : Et mes ardents souhaits de voir punir son change Assurent ma conquete a quiconque me venge. Pour gagner mon amo.ar il faut servir ma haine : A ce prix est le sceptre, a ce prix une reine ; Pertharite 2 I 391—96. With Pertliarite we close the first period of Gorneille. It remains to speak of a play which caused Gorneille much so- hcitude. This play was Nicomede. The subject matter offered the poet full material for one of those tragedies in which he delighted, but he determined to deal with it in a new way. Instead of making revenge the mainspring of his drama, he resolved to see, what he could do with the sentiment of mag- nanimity, with which to arouse the spectator's admiration. Nevertheless, he was not over-confident. In his preface to the reader, he says : «Voici une piece assez extraordinaire ; aussi est-ce la vingt et unieme, que j'ai fait voir sur le theatre ; et apres y avoir fait reciter quarante mille vers, il est Hen ma- laise de irouver quelque chose de nouveau, sans s'ecarter un pew du grand chemm et se mettre au hasard de s'egarery). Gorneille was by this time too well trained by the public taste to care to attempt untried innovations in play writing, and this is why he apologizes for his experiment with Nico- mede. According to the historical data, Prusias, king of Bi- thynia, excludes his own son, Nicomede, from the throne in — 55 — favor of the son by a second wife, and he plots the assassi- nation of Nicomede, The latter, becoming aware of the plot, with the support of faithful followers seizes the throne which is his birthright, and orders his tyrant father to be put to death. Gorneille finding this subject too gruesome, though we fail to see why it is any more revolting than his favorite tragedy of Rodogime, made various changes. He does not represent the father and son as seeking to destroy each other. He depicts the king as being under the influence of his unscrupulous wife, Arsinoe, and Nicomede as a high-minded prince, who espouses the cause of Laodice, the persecuted queen of Armenia. The denouement is a most un- expected cowp de tliedtre. The son of Arsinoe, Attale, recog- nizing the right of Nicomede to the throne, magnanimously refuses to become king. If we consider the material out of which this play is built» we see at once all the elements of a tragedy of the old school. Taking previous works as a model, we should have every reason to expect that Laodice, persecuted by the tyrant Prusias and forced into a marriage alliance against her will, would de- mand that her lover Nicomede murder his own father, avenge his own wrongs according to history and win the hand of his lady by avenging her wrongs at the same time. That Gorneille saw these possibilities is clear ; for he tells us that in the construction of this drama, he purposely avoided the beaten track. The tragic element is wanting in Nicomede. Its place is supplied by the almost superhuman magnanimity of the leading characters. According to the second method of revenge, the heroine i of Gorneille undertakes her revenge herself without the inter-| vention of a third person. This method is first adopted by Gornelie. The widow of Pompey is a captive in the hands of Gaesar. She aspires to become the wife of the author of her — 56 — misfortunes for the purpose of killing him. She says to him: Heurease en mes malheurs, si ce triste hymenee, Pour le bonheur de Rome, a Cesar m'eut donnee, Et si j'eusse avec moi porte dans ta maison D'un astre envenime I'invincible poison; Pompee 3 IV 1017—20. And again : J'attends la liberte qu'ici tu m'as offerte, Afin de V employer toute entiere a ta perte ; Pompee 4 IV 1377—78. Such was Gorneille's conception of the bereaved widow of Pompey. Mile. Glairon, however, a distinguished actress of the last century at the Theatre 'Frangais, found the Gorneille heroine so repugnant that she refused to play the role. In her memoirs, she writes : «L'opinion publique fait de Cornelie un des beaux rOles du theatre. Ayant a jouer ce rOle, j'ai fait sur lui toutes les etudes dont j'etais capable. Aucune ne m'a reussi. La modulation que je voulais etablir d'apres le personnage historique n'allait point du tout avec le personnage iheatral. Autant le premier me paraissait noble, simple, touchant, autant I'autre me paraissait gigantesque, declamaloire et froid. Je me gardai bien de penser que Gorneille et le public eussent tort, ma vanite n'allait point jusque-la; mais pour ne pas la com- promeltre, je me promis de me taire et de ne jamais jouer Gornelie. Apres ma retraite les Gommentaires sur Gorneille et le Mot Esprit dans les Questions encyclopediques par Voltaire ont paru ; lisez-les : si je me suis trompee, I'exemple d'un si grand homme me consolera*. In the time of Gorneille, however, Gornelie produced quite another impression. Saint Evremond admired her for the ver}^ reason that she did not obtrude her widow's woe, but sought revenge after the manner of a real tragic heroine. He says of her: «De toutes les veuves, qui ont jamais paru sur le theatre je n'aime voir que la seule Gornelie, parce qu'au lieu de me — 57 — faire imaginer des enfants sans pere et une femme sans ^poux, ses sentiments tout remains rappellent dans mon esprit I'id^e de Tancienne Rome et du grand Pompee».^ Gorneille himself could not have expressed himself better in regard to his ideal of a tragic heroine. Her threat of re- venge did have the genuine tragic ring, and if this threat lent eclat to the character of Gornelie, why should it not pro- duce the same effect with other heroines? Gorneille resolved to try this device again and he accordingly allowed his Rode- linde in Pertharite to consent to a marriage with the tyrant Grimoald : Pour etre a tous moments maitresse de ta vie, Pour avoir I'acces libre a pousser ma fureur, Et mieux choisir la place a te percer le coeur. A ces conditions prends ma main, si tu I'oses Pertharite 3 III 996—1000. Rodelinde was not a success, she was on the contrary a pronounced failure, the heroine of Gorneille's most unfortu- nate tragedy. But Gorneille remained undaunted. On his return to playwriting, he expressed his faith in his old methods by putting almost the identical words of Rodelinde into the mouth of a new heroine Viriate, whom Gorneille describes as «une pure idee de mon esprit». She declares in her heroic moment, that in order to avenge the death of her lover, Sertorius, she will marry his murderer: Pour etre a tous moments maitresse de sa vie; Et je me resoudrois a cet exces d'honneur, Pour mieux choisir la place a lui percer le coeur. Et recevez enfin ma main, si vous I'osez. ' Sertorius 5 IV 1782—87. Ildione, princess of Gaule, taking Viriate as model, de- cides to solve her problem in the same way. She determines 1 Saint fivremond. Dissertation sur I'Alexandre de Racine, — 58 — to marry the tyrant Attila in order to murder him. To her lover, Ardarie, she lays bare her plan : Et comme faurai lors sa vie entre mes mains, II a lieu de me craindre autant que je vous plains. Assez d'autres tyrans ont peri par leurs femmes: Cette gloire aisement touche les grandes ames, Et de ce meme coup qui brisera mes fers, II est beau que ma main venge tout I'univers. Attila 2 VI 699-704. This idea of marrying the tyrant in order to murder him, which apparently had such a great fascination for Gorneille, was not in this instance, as we might be inclined to suppose, a mere repetition of a stroke which the poet had used with success in delineating previous heroines. — Ildione was no slavish imitator of Gornelie, Rodelinde and Viriate. In her tragic threat, she but follows the facts handed down in history by Ammianus Marcellinus, in his history of the Roman Empire, where it is recorded that Atlila perished at the hand of his bride on his wedding night «Attila . . . noctu mulieris manu cultroque confodituD).^ This idea had an irresistible charm for Gorneille. Even when the heroine does not make the bloody threat herself, such an idea is suggested. In China the hero depicts the state of anarchy at Rome by the graphic descrip- tion : Le mari par sa femme en son lit egorge ; Cinna 1 III 200. Gleopatre also tries lo poison the mind of her son Antio- chus against his bride by imputing to her such an intention, at which Rodogune exclaims indignantly on m'impute un coup si plein d'horreur, Pour me faire un passage a vous percer le coeur. Bodogune 5 IV. 1761—62. The wicked queen Arsinoe also makes the same insinuation ^ See Marty-Laveaux. Oeuvres de Gorneille. vol 7, notes on Attila. — 59 — against the high-minded Laodice. With a look full of treache- rous meaning, she asks her son, the lover of Laodice : Pourras-tu dans son lit dormir en assurance? Nicomede 5 I 1500» Thus we see that even the women who do not meditate" revenge are imputed to do so, And Hkewise the women who have no cause for revenge resort to raisonnements , in order to make a glorious revenge possible. For example the plain- tive Sabine, after having confessed to herself that the good of the State demands a mortal contest between Rome and Alba Longa, nevertheless deplores that two otherwise friendly peo- ples should he obliged to meet under those circumstances. She, therefore, begs either her husband or her brother to murder her in order that the other may have the glory of avenging her death. To them she therefore makes the following singular proposition : Qu'un de vous me tue, et que V autre me venge: Alors votre combat n'aura plus rien d'etrange; Horace 2 VI 631—32. In Attila, we -find an echo, as it were, of Gorneille's early days. The princess Honorie is being wooed by Valamir, king of the Ostrogoths. As if thinking of Ginna and evidently pre- pared to take the life of Attila as a last resort, if necessary, he asks her : N'est-ce que par le sang qu'on pent vous obtenir ? But Honorie, though Apparently familiar with the con- ventional stipulation of the Gorneille heroine, surprises us by replying : Non, je ne vous dis pas qvCaux depens de sa tete Vous vous fassier aimez, et payiez ma conquete. Eegnez comme Attila, je vous prefere a lui ; Attila 2 II 464-87. Later in the play, however, Honorie does not disappoint us. Being degraded by Attila to marry a simple caplain of — 60 — the guard, she smarts junder the indignity, but rises to the height of her sister heroines, by contemplating her humble suitor and reasoning : Ma gloire pourroit bien I'accepter sans scrupule, Tyran, et tu devrois du moins te souvenir Que s'il n'en est pas digne, il pent le devenir. Ta vie est en mes mains^ des quHl voudra me plaire, Attila 4 III 1250-61. «Vengeance!» was the cry of the Gorneille heroine. How then could the poet bring his last tragedy more effectively to a close, than by allowing Palmis, the sister of Surena, to ex- claim, on hearing of the murder of her brother ! Suspendez ces douleurs qui pressent de raourir, Grands Dieux! et dans les maux ou vous m'avez plongee, Ne souffrez point ma mort que je ne sois vengee! Surena 5 V 1736—38. The cry of Palmis might well serve as the groundwork for a new tragedy of the Gorneille pattern. It was eminently fitting that the theatre of Gorneille should close with this tragic cry of vengeance on the high heroic plane where it began. A person unacquainted with the theatre of Gorneille would infer from the foregoing examples of- heroines thirsting for revenge that the tragedies in question must be of an intensely violent and tragic nature. But such is not the case. In no in- stance is the heroine presented with a bloody head. Ghimene pardons Rodrigue [for the good of the State. Emilie becomes reconciled to Augustus. Rodogune does not compel Antiochus to bring her the head of Gleopatre. The lover of Pulcherie wins the hand of his bride without acceding to her murde- rous proposition. In like manner, we learn of no tyrant's being murdered in his bed at the hand of a bloodthirsty bride. Gornelie's last speech is a magnificent eulogy of the Gaesar whom she was seeking to destroy. Rodelinde is prevented from carrying out her plan by the anti-climactic return of her bus- — 61 — band. As to Viriate's threat that she will pierce Perpenna to the heart, we do not learn the outcome, the tragedy closing with a magnanimous reconcihation between Pomp^e and Aristie, to which Viriate lends her presence. Finally and most curious of all, Ildione, who, according to history, as we have shown, really did murder Attila on the night of her marriage to the famous Scourge of God, is not allowed in the play of Gor- neille to accomplish this purpose. Gorneille explains his de- viation from history, as follows «I1 epousa Ildione ... II est constant qu'il mourut la premiere nuit de son mariage avec elle. Marcelhn dit qu'elle le tua elle-meme et je lui en ai voulu donner I'idee quoique sans effet».^ Gorneille seems therefore to have had an aversion for the actual accomphshment of the bloody threats, which he puts into the mouth of his heroines. Shakspeare would have gloried in carrying the threat out toi the letter, and this is one reason why the Shakspearean tra-\ gedy is still considered barbarous in France. Gorneille, in sol- j ving the problems of his heroines, was guided by a certain ' influence which pervaded the seventeenth century, the influ- ence of Descartes. According to the Gartesian philosophy, gei^ nerosity and magnanimity were made the highest virtues, andi they were the very virtues with which Gorneille endowed his\ heroines most strongly in the closing scenes of his dramas. The heroine's bloody threat he purposely averted «par un simple changement de volonte». Whatever she may threaten to do, she does not cause us any uneasiness for the hero or tyrant whose life is at stake. Like the «Kill Glaudio!*^ of Shakspeare's Beatrice, we realize that after all it is only a case of much ado about nothing. It is this very absence of real tragic interest, which detracts from the so-called tragedies of Gorneille. Even in the time of Gorneille this want was 1 Attila, Au Lecteur. 2 Much Ado about Nothing 4 I. — 62 — felt by the public, who refused to admire the tragedy of Age- silas. Gorneille would seem in this work to have done his ut- most to produce a tragedy which should be in the least pos- sible degree tragic. He tells us «La maniere dont je I'ai trait^e n'a point d'exemple parmi nos frangais, ni dans ces precieux restes de Fantiquite qui sont venus a nous et c'est ce qui me Ta fait choisir , , . On court a la verite quelque risque de s'egaref et mime on s eg are assez souvent quand on secarte du cJiemin hattu ; mais on ne s'egare pas toutes les fois qu'on s'en ^carte : quelques-uns en arrivent plus tOt ou ils preten- dent et chacun peut hasarder a ses perils.)) The heroines of Agesilas illustrate the innocuous type of Gorneille carried to the extreme. The plot of Agesilas may be briefly stated as follows : Elpinice formerly betrothed to Gotys, now loves Spitridate Agiatide » » » Spitridate now loves Gotys Mandane is beloved by Gotys and also by Agesilas. Without going into the ingenious raisonnements w^hich make up the play, it is enough to say that Elpinice marries Spitridate, Agiatide, Agesilas ; and Mandane, Gotys. Hemon calls Agesilas a vaudeville. He might also have called it a game of bezique. In a w^ord, the tragic heroines of Gorneille, with but few exceptions, are not tragic. Jocaste and Sophonisbe, to be sure, die in accordance with historic and theatrical tradition, and the Eurydice of Surena, a heroine who already shows the pathetic influence of Racine on the muse of Gorneille, dies of grief at the hapless fate of the hero of the play. But in general we can say that of all the creations of Gorneille, only one'is really tragic, and that is the Gleopatre of Rodogune. She is genuinely, monstrously tragic. Determined at any cost to destroy her hated rival, Rodogune, she drinks of the poi- soned cup, in order to reassure the princess, and thus induce her to drink after her. The deadly potion, however, contrary to — 63 — her expectations, acts instantly, and the Queen Gleopatre dies in fearful agony, without having accomplished the destruction of Rodogune. The tragic fitfth act of Rodogune thus closes on a situation, than which Sardou could not devise a more thril- ling. Gorneille did after all possess the divine spark. PART. II. OTHER REQUISITES WHICH GRADUALLY BECAME A FIXED PART OF CORNEILLE'S DRAMATIC SYSTEM. 1. Their (cgloire)). In the foregoing chapters we have treated of those ele- ments in the heroines of Gorneille, which the poet himself discusses more or less fully for our enlightenment. We have found that he applied his theories consistently, as long as he continued to write for the theatre. The aristocratic heroine racked by conflicting emotions, burning with political ambition and thirsting for glorious revenge, became the ideal type which he introduced anew from play to play. She became a fixed part of his dramatic system. Did she gradually be- come monotonous ? No, not from Gorneille's point of view. From a seventeenth century stand point, she would have been called regular, and regularity was a sine qua non in the literary France of two hundred years ago. In the following chapters we propose to show that this penchant for regularity influenced Gorneille still more in the . delineation of the minor details of his characters. There were certain elements, for which the poet had a great fondness, as especial marks of bienseance. As we read the first half dozen of Gorneille's works we gradually see how they are made use of. As we read on, we, see them becoming more and more — 64 — fixed in the poet's dramatic system, And towards the close of his career, they reappear with a persistency, which almost leads us to|[]wonder whether Gorneille did not write tragedies with his eyes shut. With the regularity of clockwork these elements would seem to introduce themselves, of their own accord, with little or no exertion on the part of the poet. In short they were as so many unconscious requisites to the art of the tragic poet. First and foremost of these unconscious requisites is the omnipresence on the lips of the Gorneille heroine of the word «gloire». Its pompous sonorousness is the keynote of the Gorneille tragedy. No heroine can declaim at any great length without bringing the word in. It is her catchword par excel- lence, her final reply. According to Marty-Laveaux, the syno- nyms of the word are eclat, splendeur, gloire celeste, fierti, orgueil en bonne on en mauvaise part ; gloire en parlant de la reputation des femmes, du sentiment quelles ont de leur honneur.-i> If now we add to this list the meaning of politilical aggrandizement, it will be complete. We have seen sufficiently that the Gorneille heroine finds her chief glory in politics. As Ghimene is the best known of Gorneille's heroines, let us take her as a model in the use of the word «gloire» . On hearing of the death of her father, she reflects at once: 11 y va de ma gloire, il faut que je me venge; Le Cid 3 III 842. And in the same language, she exhorts Rodrigue, going out to fight the duel for her hand : En cet aveuglement ne perds pas la memoire Qu'ainsi de ta vie, il y va de ta gloire,' ibid 5 I 1505—6. It is the same reflection which Irene makes thirty six years later, as she apprehends being jilted by her lover : Apres deux ans d'amour, il y va de ma gloire: L'affront seroit trop grand, et la tache trop noire, FulcMrie 4 II 1253—54. — 65 — Chimene states in a famous couplet the requirements which her duty places upon her in her relations with Rodrigue : Pour conserver ma gloire et finir mon ennui, Le poursuivre, le perdre et mourir apres lui. Le Cid 3 III 847—48. With that absolute fidelity to truth and justice, which characterizes the Gorneille heroine, Chimene even praises Rodrigue for what he has done. Taking him, therefore, as a model of heroism, she says to him: Ta funeste valeur m'instruit par ta victoire; EUe a venge ton pere et soutenu ta gloire : Je suivrai ton exemple, et j'ai trop de courage Pour souffrir qu'avec toi ma gloire se partage. Et je veux que la voix de la plus noire envie fileve au ciel ma gloire et plaigne raes ennuis, Sachant que je t'adore et que je te poursuis. ibid. 3 IV 913—72. In the next act Chimene appears with one of those apos- trophes, so characteristic of the classic tragedy : Voile, crepes, habits, lugubres ornements, Centre ma passion soutenez Men ma gloire ; ibid, 4 I 1136-38. On hearing that her lover has been killed she exclaims : ficlate, mon amour, tu n'as plus a craindre : Un meme coup a mis ma gloire en surete, ibid. 5 V 1709-11. We see how punctilious Chimene was in her reasoning on this, the day of her father's death. Instead of being over- come with grief at the terrible loss which she has sustained, she begins at once to argue pro and con the conflict in which she finds herself placed between her passion and her duty. Her first concern is to render 'satisfaction to her «gloire». 5 — 66 — The subsequent heroines of Gorneille are quite as mind- ful of their c(gloire». It would require too much time, how- ever, to take note of each and every instance in which they make mention of it, though it would be interesting to know how many times any given heroine makes use of the word in the course of a five act tragedy. We must, therefore, con- tent ourselves with a limited number of quotations, which shall go to complete our conception of Gorneille's ideal heroine. Emilie analyzes the glory that will be hers, if her plot to murder Augustus succeeds : Joignons a la douceur de venger nos parents, La gloire qu'on remporte a punir des tyrans, Plus le peril est grand, plus doux en est le fruit; La vertu nous y jette, et la gloire le suit. Cimia 1 II 107—32. It is a very similar idea which Pauline expresses to her former lover Severe, as she spurs him on to rescue her hus- band. She says to him : Je sais que c'est beaucoup que ce que je demands; Mais plus I'effort est grand, plus la gloire en est grande. Polyeucte 4 V 1355-56. Gleopatre, fearing that Caesar's infatuation for her may be only a fickle fancy, says : Mais je veux que la gloire anime ses ardeurs, Pompee 2 I 435. GorneHe, after the death of her husband, debates with herself as to whether she has displayed sufficient grief: Je dois rougir pourtant, apres un tel malheur, De n'avoir pu mourir d'un exces de douleur: Ma mort etait ma gloire, Pompee 3 IV 999—1001. Rodogune tersely makes it clear to Antiochus why he should bring her the head of his mother : Voire gloire le veut, Bodogune 3 IV 1033. — 67 — The wicked Cleopatre, planning the same method of de- stroying Rodogune, ponders and reflects : S'il etoit quelque voie, infame ou legitime, Que m'enseignat la gloire Bodogune 2 II 471—72. The wicked Arsinoe uses the word in a magnanimous compliment, which she pays her son : Vous etes genereux, Attale, et je le voi, Meme de vos rivaux la gloire vous est chere. Nicomede 3 VIII 1090-91. Leon line declares openly Je punirai Phocas, je vengerai Maurice; J 'en veux toute la gloire^ Heraclius 2 II 493—95. Andromede, piqued by the fact that the previous year twenty suitors had met their death in their vain efforts to rescue Neree from the sea monster, says: Je vois d'un oeil jaloux la gloire de sa mort. Andromede 4 III 1237. Donna Elvire describes her ideal heroes : lis cherchent en tous lieux les dangers et la gloire, Don Sanche 1 I 78. Donna Leonor, more skeptical, is inclined to doubt the disinterestedness of many heroes. For instance, after the ex- ploits of a hero have won him a queen and a throne, she would like lo know : S'en ira-t-il soudain aux climats etrangers Chercher tout de nouveau la gloire et les dangers? Don Sanche 1 I 87—88. Donna Isabella is assured by Carlos : L'amour que j'ai pour vous est tout a voire gloire: Don Sanche 2 II 537. The queen Laodice in her first interview with her lover, says : — 68 — Ma gloire et mon amour peuvent bien pen sur moi, S'il faut votre presence a soutenir ma foi, Nicomede 1 I 45—46, And in the political tangle in which she finds herself, ensnarled, Flaminius, the Roman ambassador, scouts the idea that she would lower herself by marrying Attale, He says : Get hymen jetteroit un ombre sur sa gloire. Nicomede 4 V 1451. Prusias in despair appears before Arsinoe and declares to her that it is his intention to : Defendre votre gloire^ ou mourir a vos yeux. Nicomede 5 VIIL • ,/ Notice by the way that to die in presence of the beloved one was, also a favorite idea of the heroes of Gorneille. Ma- \; ximei wished to die in the eyes of EmiHe, and Severe^ in the eyes of Pauline. Eleven years after Nicomede, the aged Sertorius ^ expressed a wish to die at the feet of his adored Viriate, with whom, as he tells us, he was in love «par po- litique».* Rodehnde, indignant at being compelled to marry the tyrant Grimoald, says : Apres m'avoir fait perdre epoux et diademe, C'est trop que d'attenter jusqu'a ma gloire meme, Pertharite. 1 II 215—16. Garde done ta conquete, et me laisse ma gloire; Respecte d'un epoux et Tombre et la memoire: ibid. 2 V 718-20. Rodelinde, however, finally agrees lo marry the tyrant in 1 Et souffrez que je meure aux yeux de ces amants. Cinna 5 III 1688. 2 Je ne veux que la voir, soupirer et mourir. Folyeuete 2 I 436. 3 Souffrez, apres ce mot, que je meure a vos pieds. Sertorius 4 II 1256. * Que c'est un sort cruel d'aimer par politique ! Sertorius 1 III 370. — 69 — order to pierce him to the heart. But she makes such an agreement on condirion that Grimoald murder her son before her eyes. She argues thus : Et consens a ce prix que ton amour m'obtienne, Puisqu'il souille ta gloire aussi bien que la mienne. ibid. 3 III 923-24. On the unexpected return to life of the hero of the piece, Rodehnde vaunts the fidehty with which she as a widow has cherished his memory. She says to Pertharite. . . . .tout autre en ma place eut peut-etre fait gloire De cet hommage entier de toute sa victoire . . . ibid. 4 V 1435-36. Let US here digress once more to call the attention of the reader to Gorneille's fondness for resurrecting his heroes. Emi- lie^ and Pauhne" are both startled by the re-appearance of for- mer suitors, whom they had supposed to be dead. On his return to the theatre in 1659, Gorneille brought with him an original heroine, the pohtical princess, Dirc^. In the stirring scene which opens the play, she exhorts her lover Vivez pour faire vivre en tous lieux ma memoire, Pour porter en tous lieux vos soupirs et ma gloire, ipe 1 I 81-82. The passion of this heroine for her agloire» is so great that she begins a monologue with the words: Impitoyable soif de gloire, ibid. 3 1719. and this thirst she decides to quench by dying for her coun- try and thereby freeing Thebes from the pest. She declares: . . . Je fais gloire de mourir. ibid. 3 I 818. ^ Mais je vous vois, Maxime, et Von vous faisoit mort ! Cinna 4 V 1315. 2 Le bruit de voire mort n'est point ce qui vous perd. Poli^euete 2 II 464. — 70 — The two original heroines of Sertorms vie with each other in devotion to their «gloire». Aristie finally agrees to pardon her recreant husband, and makes him the following proposition : Si vous mavez aimee, et qu'il vous en convienne, Yous mettrez voire gloire a me rendre la mienne ; Sertorius 3 II 1113-14. Her rival, Viriate, reminds Sertorius with a cold finesse: Et la part que tantot vous aviez dans mon ame Fut un don de ma gloire, et non pas de ma flamme. ibid. 4 II 1285-86. And this to the lover who had but declared that he would gladly die at her feet! Imbued with the same ideal as Viriate, Sophonisbe spurns the amorous compliment which her husband sends to her from the battlefield, and coldly sends back word : . . . je le conjure, en cet illustre jour, De penser a sa gloire encor plus qu'a Tamour. \^ Sophonisbe 1 I 33-34. This quotation illustrates clearly what Gorneille means when he says that the passion of love must content itself with second place in the drama. ^ Sophonisbe also remonstrates on the same lines with her rival Eryxe, who is hopelessly in love with Massinisse: Si Thonneur vous est cher, cachez tout votre amour Et voyez a quel point votre gloire est fletrie D'aimer un ennerai de sa propre patrie. ibid. 1 III 202-4. After agreeing to accept the hand of Massinisse on con- dition that she still be allowed to rule over her own territo- ries, Sophonisbe reflects : Et c'est, pour peu qu'on aime, une extreme douceur De pouvoir accorder sa gloire avec son coeur; ibid. 2 V 709-10. 1 Discours du poeme dramatique. _ 71 — Je sais ce que je suis et ce que je dois faiie, Et prends pour seul objet ma gloire ^ satisfaire. ihid. 3 V 993-4. Quand il en sera temps je mourrai pour ma gloire. ihid. 3 VI 1098. Her last cry as she realizes the fall of Carthage is : Quelle bassesse d^ame ! 6 ma gloire, 6 Carthage ! ihid. 5 I 1533. We do riot wonder that Gorneille allowed his original queen Eryxe to exclaim on hearing of the death of Sophonisbe : Je la plains et Tadmire : Une telle fierte meritoit un empire ; ihid. 5 VII 1803-4. Gamille, distrustful and jealous of the attentions which Othon is paying to her rival, says to her confidant: Peut-etre, en ce moment qu'il m'est doux de te croire, De ses voeux a Plautine il assure la §loire : Othon 3 I 837—38. Aglatide queries as to the advantage which will accrue to her by marrying Gotys : Peut-etre que mon choix satisferoit ma gloire. Agesilas 4 IV 1571. Mandane refuses Gotys out of political reasons, but con- soles him by teUing him : Non, seigneur, je vous aime ; Mais je dois a mon frere, a ma gloire, a vous-meme. ihid. 4 V 1624—25. Honorie declares to her lover : Pour peu que vous m'aimiez, Seigneur, vous devez croire Que rien ne m'est sensible a I'egal de ma gloire, Attila 2 II 485-86. Ildione, who, as we remember, marries Atiila in order to murder him, explains her action as follows : Je I'epouserai done, et reserve pour moi La gloire de repondre a ce que je me doi. ihid. 2 VI 683-84. — 72 — The Berenice of Racine leaves Rome heart-broken and in tears. In her final speech, she says : Adieu. Servons tous trois d'exemple a I'univers De I'amour la plus tendre et la plus amoureuse Dont il puisse garder I'histoire douleureuse. Tout est pret. On m'attend. Ne suivez point mes pas a Titus Pour la derniere fois, adieu, seigneur. Antiochus. Helas ! Berenice 5 VII. Compare the simple pathos of her departure with the pomp with which Gorneille's Berenice returns to her Jewish dominions. On taking leave of the emperor, she says : Graces an juste ciel, ma gloire en surete N'a plus a redouter aucune indignite. Rome a sauve ma gloire en me donnant sa voix; , , , .«. . . • • . . • • Nous pourrions vivre heureux, mais avec moins de gloire Allons, Seigneur : tna gloire en croitra de moitie Si je puis remporter chez moi son amitie. Tite et Berenice 5 V 1677^1770. As a final example, let us quote the words of Pulcherie, the heroine w^hose coming, awakened such pleasurable anti- cipations in Mme. de Sevigne. In her first scene, she demon- strates clearly that she understands the ideals of Gorneille. With admirable moderation and self control, she states her position to her lover : Je vous airae, Leon, et n'en fais point mystere : Ma passion pour vous, genereuse et solide, A la vertu pour ame et la raison pour guide, La gloire pour objet, L'amour entre deux coeurs ne veut que ies unir; L'hymenee a de plus leur gloire a soutenir ; Pulcherie 1 I 1-80. The raisonneme?ils of Pulcherie at last drive Leon to de- spair and he cries out : — 73 — Quelles illusions de gloire chimeriqae, ihid. 3 III 1005. The foregoing quotations, in spite of their apparent pro- lixity^ are by no means the only ones in which the heroines of Gorneille dwell upon their ccgloirew. Indeed we have en- tirely, omitted to miention Sabine, Gamille, the Infante, Medee, Livie, the Pulcherie of 1647, Plautine, Domitie and Eurydice, and these ladies by no means deviate from the high ideals, cherished by the heroines already quoted. One and all, they speak freely of their «gloire». The casual reader, with the majestic verses of Gorneille ringing in his ears might be inclined to attribute this striking frequency with which the word is used, to the necessity which Gorneille was under of finding a suitable rhyme for words like victoire, memoire etc. But an examination of one hundred and thirty-three quotations in which the word occurs, reveals the fact that the word occurs only forty-eight times in rhyme, nineteen times with victoire, fourteen times with croire, nine 4imes with memoire, twice with histoire, and once with noire. Gorneille had not a large assortment of rhymes at his disposal it is true, and Malherbe was a hard task-master. Monotony in the rhyme was therefore unavoidable, or better expressed, the rhyme was monotonously regular. But we see that in the majority of cases, the word comes in the body of the line, thus showing that it was the idea contained in the word itself, more than the sonorousness of the rhyme which influenced Gorneille in his lavish use of it. Before leaving this point it is worth while to call attention to the way in which the Ghristian martyrs, Polyeucte and Theodore, employ the word. The wife of Polyeucte, seeing her husband, as he is being led away to execution, cries out in anguish : Ou le conduisez-vous ? u^ — 74 — Felix A la mort. Polyeucte. A la gloire. Polyeuete 5 III 1679. Theodore uses the word similarly. As if to rehuke those, who would force her into the conventional political marriage of the Corneille heroine, she says, as she makes a point: . . la gloire ou j aspire est toute une autre gloire, Theodore 2 IV 516. To those who are inclined to see in the tragedies of f.^Polyetictey> and (f^ Theoclorey> , a sort of seventeenth century survival of the early rehgious dramas of the Middle Ages, we would call attention to a passage in the first ^French drama extant, the Mystery of Adam. After the creation of Eve, the Figura speaks to her of her duty as woman. Submission to her lord and master, Adam, is enjoined upon her. Celestial .glory will be her reward. The Figura says : Se tu li fais bone adjutoire Jo te mettrai od lui en gloire Mystere d'Adam. Edition Luzarche, Tours 1854. ^ Celestial glory, however, was not the concern of the Cor- neille heroine in general. Theodore was tabooed. A politi cal heroine was more sympathetic to the public taste in the seventeenth century and especially to the admirers of the great Corneille. Akin with the selfconscionsness of the Corneille heroine, which causes her never to forget her gloire, is her fondness for calling herself proudly by name. In the estimation of Voltaire, the finest line in the Cid is the one in which Chi- mene says to Rodrigue, as he goes out to the final duel Sors vainqueur d'un combat dont Chimene est le prix. Le Cid 5 I 1556. That Corneille had great faith in the heroic powers of — 75 — this method of delineation is evidenced by the long line of heroines who follow the example of Ghimene. For example : Ce n'est point a Camille a t'en mesestimer : Horace 1 III 249. Commencez par Sabine a faire de vos vies Un digne sacrifice a vos cheres patries : iUd. 2 VI 643-44. La liberie de Rome est I'ceuvre d'Emilie; Cinna 1 II 110. Severe, connoissez Pauline tout entiere. Polyeucte 4 V 1335. Souviens-toi seulement que je suis Cornelie. Fompee 3 IV 1026. Mais connois Pulcherie et cesse de pretendre. HeracUus 1 II 142. Mais gardez d'oublier qu' enfin je suis Marcelle, Theodore 2 VI 672. Vous leur imraolez done I'honneur de Theodore, Theodore 3 1 752. Je suis imperatrice, et j'etois Pidcherie. Pulcherie 3 I 754. C'est par la seulement qu'on merite Edulge. Pertharite 2 I 495. Quoi? Dirce, par sa mort deviendroit criminelle Jusqu'a forcer Thesee a mourir apres elle, Oedipe 1 I 49-50. Quoi ? Jason, tu pourrois pour Medee Etouffer de ta Grece et I'amour et I'idee? La Toison d'Or 2 II 876—77. Sertorius, lui seul digne de Viriate, Merite que pour lui tout mon amour eclate. Sertorius 2 I 389-90. J Sophonisbe, en un mot et captive et pleurante, L'emporte sur Eryxe et reine et triomphante ; Sophonisbe 2 I 427—28. Peut-etre; mais, Seigneur, croyez vous Berenice D'un coeur a s'abaisser jusqu' a cet artifice . . . ? Tite et Berenice 3 I 751—52. This manner of allowing the heroine to speak for herself must have been regarded as a masterstroke of heroic character- — 76 — drawing, as we shall see, if we examine the following incident. In the scene in , in which Augustus discovers the conspiracy, the insignificant empress, Livie, appears on the boards with the following words : Vous ne conriaissez pas encor tous les complices: Voire Emilie en est, Seigneur, et la voici. Cinna 5 II 1562—63. As the rOle of Livie seemed superfluous to the actors, it met the fate of the Infante in the Oid and was gradually omitted altogether from the representation.! These lines were, therefore, put into the mouth of Emilie, who henceforth de- livered them with all the bravado of a Corneille heroine. We have given only a limited number of instances where the heroine calls herself by name. It was the habit of many of them to indulge in this practice repeatedly just as Ihey did in sounding their c(gloire». Ghimene, Sabine, Emilie, Pauline, Corn^lie, Pulcherie of 1647, Pulcherie of 1672 Viriate and Be- renice were by no means content to allow so effective a device to go unimproved. Their names had the genuine heroic ring; they also adapted themselves readily to the rhyme. / There is always a fascination in penetrating through the personages of any great author to the personality of the author himself. We have noticed the self-consciousness, the pompous- ness with which the heroines of Corneille assert themselves. Can we not see in them the influences of direct heredity ? Do they not owe their character to the one who created them? How else are we to account ifor the absolute frankness with which Corneille praises his own literary efforts? Je sais ce que je vaux, et crois ce qu'on m'en dit! ^ 1 In 1860 the role was permanently restored. See Marty-Laveaux vol. Ill p. 366. ^ Compare Sophonisbe 3 V 993. Je sais ce que je suis, et ce que je dois faire. — 77 — Mon travail sans appui monte sur le theatre : Je ne dois qu'a moi seul toute ma renommee Excuse a Ariste 36—41 — 50. It was the character of the great Gorneille which perpe- tuated itself in his tragic heroines. It was, therefore, eminently fitting that the last of the above lines should find a place upon the memorial tablet erected to Gorneille in the court of the house in the Rue d'Argenteuil at Paris, where the great poet breathed his last. 2. Their pathetic element. The second requisite with which Gorneille as a matter of course invested his heroines was the pathetic element. A tra- gedy must be touching or it is no tragedy. The sufferings of the heroine must appeal to our sympathies. Thus it happens that Gorneille allows his proud heroic women to shed tears when too sorely vexed by their problems, and to sigh when , their political schemes fail to develop satisfactorily. This prone- ; ness to tears may also be regarded as a concession to the j demand for «tendresse» on the part of the public. To the/ reader of the works of Gorneille, the v-larmes-s), (kpIeurs-^-y and// asoitpirs-i) of his tragic heroines are as familiar as their cry o^ . Let us consider the pathetic element in the heroines of the four masterpieces and note as we go along to what extent Ghimene, Gamille, Sabine, Emilie and Pauline served a$ models for later heroines. Ghimene, in spite of her unrelenting pursuit of Rodrigue, is often in tears. Foreseeing the sad outcome of the quarrel j between her lover and her father, she exclaims: i Honneur impitoyable a mes plus chers desirs, Que tu vas couter de pleurs et de soupirs ! ^ Je sens eouler des pleurs que je veux restenir ; 2 Le Cid 2 111 459—79 After the death of Ghimene's father, the king is informed : Chimene a vos genoux apporte sa douleur; Elle vient tout en pleurs ^ vous demander justice. ihid. 2 VII 636—37. 1 Compare : a) Cleopatre in La Mort de Pompee 5 V 1789—90. Ne vous offensez pas si cet heiy:e de vos armes, Qui me rend tant de biens, me coute un peu de larmes., b) Rodelinde to Eduige in Pertharite 1 II 195—96. Ce qui jusqu'a present vous donne tant d'alarmes, Sitot qu'il me plaira, vous coiitera des larmes; and <.<.soupirsy> y why should not Eduige, Eryxe and Pulcherie meet with an equal measure of success by the same means? The skeptical reader might again be inclined to attri- bute the pathos of Corneille's heroines to the exigencies of the versification. Pleurs, douleurs, mallieurs, vainqueurs ; lar- mes, armes, alarmes, charmes ; soupirs, clesirs, deplaisirs. The assortment of rhymes was not overabundant, to be sure. But here as in the case of , if we examine, we shall find that not the rhyme but the idea was of prime importance with Gorneille. The woman in tears was a permanent figure in French tragedy. Voltaire even explains the tears of his own heroines as an especial mark of bienseance. When his tragedy of Zaire was translated into EngHsh, he was' shocked at the excessive emotion displayed by the English actress, who played the title rOle. On hearing that the Sultan loved her no longer, the English Zaire threw herself upon the ground in an agony of Oriental despair. The French Zaire on the other hand, merely shed a few gentle tears. The Sultan says to her : Zaire, vous pleurez, and Voltaire assures us that these lines always produced a pro- found impression upon people of taste. They were practically the same lines which had lent distinction to the character of — 88 — Emilie in Gorneille's Cinna. Filled v/ith apprehension as to the fate which her lover may have met with in seeking to destroy Augustus, Emilie is similarly accosted by her confidant : Vous en pleurez, 3 V 1069. / If we go back to the beginnings of French poetry, we find that many a mediaeval hero and heroine sought conso- lation in tears. A tinge of sadness pervades the poetry of the Middle Ages. The isolated life which the nobles led in old times in their stately chateaux was conducive to introspection. Out of sheer ennui have come many of the most characteristic gems of the old troubadour poetry. The laments of Beatrice, comtesse de Diei, conscious of her fine courage and her per- sonal charms, remind us of many of the heroines of Gorneille. To such as would reproach the heroines of the classic French tragedy, the weakness which their tears would seem to betray, we would merely says that from the French standpoint, tears are not unbecoming in a tragic hero or heroine. In the Chan- son de Roland, the heroes are repeatedly represented as being in tears. Charlemagne ^ and Roland ^ are easily moved to tears. The hundred thousand knights weep at the death of Roland : Idunc plurerent cent milie chevalier Chanson de Roland, 3870. and the greatest of all French epic poems closes with the fol lowing line, familiar to every admirer of the Chanson de Bo- land, a description of Charlemagne : Pluret des oilz^ sa barbe blanche tiret Chanson de Boland 4001. The heroines of Corneille are, therefore, thoroughly national in their proneness to tears. But are they so strictly na- 1 See Bartsch's chrestomathie Provcngale. p. 69 — 70. 2 See 1. 1404, 2856, 2943. Gautier edition. Tours 1874. 3 See 1. 1853, 2022, 2217. — 89 — tional in the fondness which they display for arguing over the cause of their tears? At this point the ever present self- consciousness of the Gorneille heroine makes itself felt. In the midst of her tears she listens to arguments, which remind us of those days long since past, when Gorneille himself was a student of law. A few examples will make this point clear. Gamille grieving over the doom, which threatens her lover, is reminded by her confidant that Sabine is far more to be pitied. The confidant reasons : Elle est pourtant plus a plaindre que vous : On pent changer d'amant, mats non changer d'epoux. Horace 1 II 145—146. After the death of Guriace, the old Horace reasons in much the same manner: En la mort d'un amant vou ne perdez qu'un homme Dont la perte est aisee a reparer dans Borne; Et ses trois freres morts par la main d'un epoux Lui donneront des pleurs bien plus justes qua vous; ibid. 4 III 1179-86. Sabine in like manner takes up the same raisonnement, and says: Je soupire comme elle, et deplore mes freres: Plus coupable en ce point centre tes dures lois, QiCelle n'en pleurait qu'un, et que fen pleure trois^ ibid. 4 VII 1344—46, The discussion as to which of two persons is the more to be pitied in a given situation had great attractions for Gor- neille, In Andromede, the lover and the father of the heroine debate over the question, which one has the greater cause for sorrow in the death of Andromede. The father argues : Voire perte n'est rien au prix de ma misere: Vous n'etes qu'amoureux, Phinee, et je suis pere. II est d'autres objets dignes de voire foi; Mais il n'est point ailleurs d'autres filles pour moi. Andromede 2 IV 714-17. — 90 — With the same arguments Plaiitine is consoled at the sup- posed death of her lover Othon : Mais il est juste aussi de ne pas trop pleurer Une perte facile et prete a reparer. \OtJion 5 V 1695—96. Palmis the sister of Surena chides the princess Eurydice, because she does not weep at the danger which menaces Su- rena. But she explains Eurydice's apparent indifference, as follows : Mais j'ai tort, et la perte est pour vous moins amere: On reeouvre un amant plus aisement qu'un frere; Surena 4 II 1109—10. 3. Their Self-Gontrol and Dissimulation. Akin with the heroine's propensity to tears is her power of self-control, by which she is able to restrain her tears at will. The selfconsciousness, which never deserts a lady born and bred in the highest society, also enables the heroines of Gorneille to comport themselves with the elegant repose of manner, which characterized the ladies of the Hotel Rambouillet. If perchance a heroine allowed herself to be carried away by a transport of passion at the failure of some political scheme, there was always some father, lover or confidant to repress her and quietly remind her that her conduct was not in keep- ing with her station as a lady of noble birth. To illustrate this point, let us still remain with the heroines of the four masterpieces, referring by way of comparison to later and less-known heroines, as occasion requires. Ghimene, for example, realizes the Gorneille ideal when she says: — 91 — Je sens couler des pleurs g[ue je veux retenir; Le Cid 2 III 479, Sabine, loo, when in her opening complaint, she reflects : Commander a ses pleurs en cette extremite, Cast montrer, pour le sexe, assez de fermete. Horace 1 I 13—14. Emilie, likewise, when in the impassioned moment in which she plots the murder of Augustus, she stops to apo« strophize her feelings, with the words: Tout beau, ma passion, deviens un peu moins forte ; Cinna 1 II 125. The ideal is thus firmly established, and insisted upon many times in the course of the various dramas. Ghim^ne, ashamed of the weakness which causes her to weep over her father's death, begs the king : JExcusez ma douleur, Le Cid 2 VIII 668. Pauline likewise apologizes for the emotion which she betrays, as she narrates the sad story of her separation from her lover : II s'appeloit Severe: excuses les soupirs, Qu' arrache encore un nom trop cher a mes desirs. Polyeucte 1 III 171-72.- Sophonisbe recovers promptly from the shock which she receives when Massinisse proposes to her that she desert her husband : De grace, excuses ma surprise. Sophonisbe 2 IV 637. Ghimene is advised by the king : Prends du repos, ma fiUe, et calme tes douleurs Le Cid 2 VIII 739. And again with Rodrigue in mind he says to her: Calme cette douleur^ qui pour lui s'interesse. Ma fille, ces transports ont trop dz violence. ibid. 4 V 1349-85. — 92 — Ghimene has previously been advised by her confidant : Moderez vos transports, voici venir I'lnfante. ibid. 4 I 1142. It is the same counsel which Sabine and Gamille receive from their confidant: Moderez vos frayeurs ; Horace 3 III 865. The Infante is of all Gorneille's heroines, the one whose selfconsciousness is most unmistakable. To her confidant she has made her complaint, that her exalted birth prevents for- ever the idea of her marrying Rodrigue. The confidant asks if she means to remain forever in her gloomy revery; to which the Infante replies with perfect composure : Non je veux seulement malgre mon deplaisir, Bemettre mon visage un peu plus a loisir. And then after a short soliloquy, she stops short and says : Mais je tarde un peu trop: allons trouver Chimene, Le Cid 1 II 139-49. Gamille controls her passions well until after the death of her lover, w^hen, as she reasons, there is no object in restraining them any longer : Eclatez, mes douleurs: a quoi hon vous contraindre? Horace 4 IV 1243. The young Horace is especially stern towards weeping women. He bids his father : Mon pere, retenez des femmes qui s^emportent, ibid. 2 VIII 695. Even after the death of his sister, he reproves his wife severely : Seche tes pleiirs, Sabine, ou les cache a ma vue: Adieu : ne me suis point, ou retiens tes soupirs. ibid. 4 VII 1348—97. Finally king Tullius pronounces the words which show^ — 93 — Sabine her duty as a heroic woman, as a heroine of the great Gorneille : Sabine, ecoutez moins la douleur qui vous presse; Chassez de ce grand coeur ees marques de foiblesse: C'est en sechant vos pleurs que vous vous montrerez La veritable soeur de ceux que vous pleurez. Horace 5 ni 1767—70. Emilie, therefore, on the recommendation of king Tullius, it would seem, for her solicitude concerning Ginna apologizes with the words : Pardonnez a men amour cette indigne foiblesse. Cinna 1 IV 325. The necessity of self-control shows itself in every tragedy of Gorneille. If we compare his first heroine with his last, and his last with anyone of the women created by him midway in his career, we shall find this element predominant side^by side with the pathetic element to which it forms a sort of com- plement. And in this point, be it said, Gorneille showed unwonted variety in his poetic language, not relying always on the same formula of speech in similar situations. For example Medee is counselled in the following words : Moderez les bouillons de cette violence, Et laissez deguiser vos douleurs au silence. Medee 1 V 281-82. Marcelle receives following advice : Madame, ecoutez moins des transports si bouillants: Theodore 5 VI 1710. and the immoderate emotion of Eduige is subdued by the injunction : Dissimulez du moins ce violent courroux: Pertharite I IV 385. In many instances, nevertheless, Gorneille showed his profound faith in the utility of tried methods. His original heroine Viriate, for example, on being informed of the death of Sertorius, on whom she had staked her pohtical hopes, says with an iron firmness to her rival: — 94 — Madame, apres sa perte, et parmi ces alarmes, N' attendee point de moi de soupirs ni de larmes; Ce sont amusements que dedaigne aisement Le prompt et noble orgueil d'un vif ressentiment : Qui pleure I'affoiblit, qui soupire I'exhale. Sertorius 5 III 1681—84. Viriate was thoroughly cornelieime, though not entirely original. Ten years before, if we care to look back, we find Rodelinde expressing the same sentiments, on apprehending the death of Pertharite: Wattendez point de moi de soupirs ni de pleurs: Ce sont amusements de legeres douleurs. Pertharite 4 V 1409—10. In a similar manner the idyllic Andromede in 1650 holds herself up to her lover as a model of self-control in the fol- lowing words : J'etouffe ma douleur pour n'aigrir pas la voire; Je retiens mes soupirs de peur de vous facher, Et me montre insensible afin de moins toucher. Andromede 2 III 647—49. It is precisely the course which Plautine adopts towards her lover fourteen years later, and in much the same language : Tout ce que vous sentez, je le sens dans mon ame; Pai memes deplaisirs, comme j'ai meme flamme; Pai meme desespoirs ; mais je sais les cacher, Et paroitre insensible afin de moins toucher. Othon 1 IV 345-48. The affinity which one heroine has for another is shown by still another example. Emilie in 1639 appears upon the -scene with an apostrophe to her emotions beginning: Impatients desirs d'une illustre vengeance Enfants impetueux de mon ressentiment, Vous prenez sur mon dme un trop puissant empire: Durant quelques moments, souffrez que je respire, Cinna 1 I 1—6. — 95 — Thirty-five years later, Eurydice similarly apostrophizes her overzealous love for Surena : Amour, prends sur ma vertu un peu moins d' empire ! Surena 1 II 238. The instances which we have cited above, suffice to show the importance of self-control as a requisite to the Gorneille heroine. Without following any definite plan, we have in this chapter chosen at random the heroines of the following years : 1635, 1639, 1650, 1662, 1664, 1674, thus covering the whole career of Gorneille as tragic poet. If we hgfd compared the same number of heroines taken from the tragedies of other years, the result would not have been far different. A heroine of tragedy must, in the estimation of Gorneille, comport herself with studied moderation; or in the words of Honorie, a heroine of the year 1667 : il vaut mieux faire effort sur moi-meme. Attila 2 I 449. The same self-consciousness which enables the Gorneille heroine to restrain her tears, would also seem to guide her in her use and abuse of her fondness for argument. The captive princess, seeking glorious revenge, is ever ready to enter into conversation on any subject which will allow her to make good points with her audience. But she seems to have the in- stinct, after a time, of having talked long enough. She seems to feel with Gorneille that a tragedy has a fixed limit, and must come to an end. Voltaire says that the great public paid their five sous for two hours worth of recitation. Gorneille took pains accordingly not to let his plays go beyond eighteen hundred lines. That seemed to him the suitable length. His heroines were, therefore, obliged to yield the stage to the other actors, after holding it a just amount of time. After the quarrel over the Oid, Gorneille found himself more than ever obliged to bring the action of his plays within twenty four hours, and v/- — 96 — he, therefore, made use of a set of phrases, which should apprise the spectator that the action of the play was making suitable progress. Even before the Cid we find Medee, anxious to hear the effect of the poisoned robe on Greuse, interrupting the herald in his narration with the words: Depeche, ou ces longueurs attireront ma haine. Medee 5 I 1298. About to murder her children she says: JV'en deliberons plus^ mon bras en resoudra. Je vous perds, mes eufants; mais Jason vous perdra ; ibid. 5 II 1355-56. The four masterpieces furnish us with fewer examples on the part of the heroines to hasten the action. The reason is that in his earlyt ragedies, Corneille was handling simpler sub- jects. The action spent itself easily in the five acts.^ There was no need of the actors becoming impatient. For comparison's sake, in order to make this point clear, let us consider again those heroines who have just distinguished themselves by their self-control We shall find that, whatever the situation, they did not propose to waste time. Eurydice brings her discussion as to coolness of her love for Pacorus, to a close by saying : J'ew dis trop ; il est temps que je finisse. Surena 2 II 581. The two original heroines of 1662 resemble her. Aristie in parley with her faithless husband, is undecided whether or not to return to his side. After both parties have sufficiently debated over the matter, she says : 1 Compare : a) Chimene addressed by her confidant. Le Cid 4 I. Moderez ces transports, voici venir VInfante. b) Pauline checking the condolences of her confidant. Folyeucte 1 III 264. Tais-toi, mon pere vient. c) Theodore closing her first scene with Cleobale in Theodore 2 II 444. Quittons ce discours, je vois venir Marcelle. — 97 — Mais il est temps qu'un mot termine ces debats. Sertorius 3 II 1115. Viriate brings lier first long interview with her confidant to a close with the following words : Mais nous en parlerons encore quelque autre fois : Je I'apergois, qui vient. Sertorius 2 I 472—73. And thus she affords Sertorius the opportunity to make his entrance, a familiar device of Gorneille. Here again, we find the original queen Viriate terminating her scene in the same manner as the Pers^e of Andromede twelve years before. Persee closes a discussion on the subject of Andromede's beauty with the proposition : Mais nous en parlerons encore quelque autre fois. Void le Boi qui vient. Andromede 1 IV 251—52. And the king is by this means introduced upon the scene. Gorneille evidently thought well of this method of linking his scenes together, as he uses it in Rodogune, where Laonice yields the stage to the hero, by postponing her narration, as follows : Je vous acheverai le reste une autre fois., Un des princes survient. Eodogune 1 I 70—71. Was it judicious on the part of Gorneille to call the attention of his public to the fact that the discourses of his heroes and heroines were monotonous? Perhaps he became weary himself of the very methods which belonged to his dramatic system. In any case he certainly allows his characters not only to become impatient at the longueur of the speeches which they are obliged to listen to, but to express their ennui with unmistakable clearness. Pauline and Othon, discussing the unhappy lot which is theirs, the sacrifice which each must make in renouncing the other, are advised by the father of the lady : • Sans discourir faites ce qu'il faut faire; Othon 4 I 1278. It was the same advice which Rodrigue had given to Ghimene. He begs her to strike him down with the words : saws plus discourir^ Sauve ta renommee en me faisant mourir. Le Cid 3 IV 967-68. Sophonisbe, disposed to discuss at length the propriety of her deserting one husband in order to marry another, is reminded by Massinisse : Quand le temps est trop cher pour le perdre en paroles, Toutes ces verites sont des discours frivoles: Sophonisbe 2 IV 659—60. Gamille would seem to voice the sentiments of many an- other heroine when she bids her rival Plautine : Brisons la : ce discours deviendroit ennuyeux. Othon 4 IV 1407. And finally the ferocious tyrant, Grimoald, puts an end to the importunities of his antagonist by declaring: Ah! c'est m'assassiner d'un discours inutile: Pertharite 2 IV 596. Gorneille, as we have seen, had a sufficient variety of expressions for hastening the action of his dramas. ^ (^jSans 1 Compare further: a) Sabine in Horace 2 VII 691. Aliens, ma soeur, allons, ne perdons plus de larmes. b) Jason taking leave of Medee, Medee 2 IV 605—6. Mais, sans plus de discours, d'une maison voisine Je vais prendre le temps que sortira Nirine. c) Creuse addressed by Jason, Medee 5 V 1509. Ne perdons point de temps, d) Dirce addressed by Thesee Oedipe 1 I 97. Mais ne contestons point et sauvons Tun et I'autre: e) Jocaste in Oedipe 4 II 1362. Qu'il vienne; il tarde trop, cette lenteur me tue; f) Thamire in Sertorius 4 I 1207. Ny perdez point de temps, et ne negligez rien. plus discouriry>, , asans discouriry>, fnun discours inutile y> , , o^ne perdons point de lempsy> , ad parler sans fardy> , , were among the most / serviceable of his literary tools as a play-wright. At the I same time they were fully in keeping with that self consci- ■ ousness, which is a distinguishing trait of his tragic heroines. / 4. Their polite breeding. The same self-consciousness which enables the heroines of Gorneille to keep their gloire ever in mind, to analyze the cause of their tears, and to refrain from all undue emotion, also furnishes them with that grace of bearing so essential to ladies in high society. With the Marquise de Rambouillet and her coterie ever before them as models, they could not help reflecting the etiquette of the Blue Chamber and other salons of Paris. In the heroines of Gorneille, we therefore f g) Marcelle in Theodore 1 IV 334. Allez-y, Stephanie, allez sans plus tarder. h) Cassiope, addressed by Persee in Andromede 1 IV 442. Cest trop perdre de temps, courons a votre joie, i) Cassiope in Andromede 5 III 1616. Un amant qui perd tout pent perdre des paroles; j) Eduige in Pertharite 4 II 1293. Tu perds temps; je n'ecoute plus rien, k) Sophonisbe in Sophonishe 2 IV 702. Ne perdez point, Seigneur, ces precieux moments; 1) Sophonisbe in Sophonisle 2 V 763. Allons, sans perdre temps ^ m) Sophonisbe as described by Massinisse, Sophonisbe 3 I 789—90. Cependant cours au temple, et presse un peu la Reine D'y terminer des voeux dont la longueur me gene; n) Palmis, addressed by Orode in Surena 3 III 1049. N'en parlons plus, Madame; — 100 — behold, not only a series of captive princesses seeking glorious revenge for wrongs suffered, but a bevy of society ladies, the grandes dames of the seventeenth century. Ghimene charmed all Paris by her refinement of manner. Hearing that her father and her lover are' at swords points, the young girl has every reason to be agitated. We could eas- ily pardon her, if she completely forgot the conventions of society at such a moment, but this aristocratic heroine does not forget to take leave in a ladylike manner of the Infante, with whom she has been in conversation : Madame, pardonnez a cette promptitude. Le Cid 2 IV 505. The king having condoled with Ghimene, after the death of her father and having promised to be a father to her, she is not at a loss to acknowledge his kindness : Sire, de trop d''honneur ma misere est suivie. ibid. 2 VIII 673. We see in these two quotations the elegance and high- breeding of a woman of the world. Later in the play the manners of Ghimene offer several examples of pleasing prudery, — pleasing at a time when the stage had only recently been rescued from a state of gross licentiousness. The modesty of Ghimene met with the unstinted approval of the HOtel Ram- bouillet. Her solicitude as to her reputation stamped her as a person of propriety. It is a thrilling moment, when Rodrigue comes to his betrothed, and begs her to kill him in such gallant terms : Assures vous Vhonneur de m'empecher de vivre. ibid. 3 IV 850. At such a moment nothing less than great presence of mind and a fine sense of propriety could enable the young girl to reply : Dans I'ombre de la nuit cache Men ton depart: Si Ton te voit sortir mon honneur court hasard. — 101 — : ^ :;::v.- ;'^; La seul occasion qu'aura la medisanci'e, . . . ■ C'est de savoir qu'ici j'ai souffert ta present* - '^ ! ' Ne lui donne point lieu d'attaquer ma vertu, ibid. 3 IV 975—79. And again in the last act, when Rodrigue comes to take leave of her, she exclaims : Quoi! Rodrigue, en plein jour! d'ou te vient cette audace? Va, tu me perds Vhonneur; retire-toi, de grace. ibid. 5 I 1465—66. And as Rodrigue goes out to fight the final duel, she cries after him : Sofs vainqueur d'un combat, dont Chimene est le prix. Adieu : ce mot IdcM me fait rougir de honte. ibid. 5 I 1556-57. In Horace, it is Sabine who represents the well bred woman. Gamille, unable to bear the death of her lover with the equanimity worthy of a Gorneille heroine, curses her fatherland and meets with a tragic death in consequence at the hands of her brother. Her grief was not without reason, but however natural we may find her woman's frenzy at such a time, it is clear that from the standpoint of the HOtel Ram- bouillet, the demeanor of Sabine was far more pleasing. Mo- deration and extreme politeness characterize her every speech. She begins the play, as we have already pointed out with the apology : Approuve^ ma foiblesse, et souffresi ma douleur; Horace 111. She apologizes for the love which she bears her brother: Mais exeusez Fardeur d'une amour fraternelle ; ibid. 1 I 115. She chides her sister-in-law with much delicacy : Parmi nos deplaisirs souffrez que je vous blame: ibid. 3 IV. 871. And she begs the old Horace : Enfin, pour toute grace, en de tels deplaisirs, Gardez voire Constance, et souffrez nos soupirs. ibid. 3 V 949-50. — 102 — - ' An" example *of the polite mingled with the sentimental is the symmetrical refrain with which Severe and PauHne take leave of each other : Severe Adieux, trop vertueux objet, et trop charmant. Pauline Adieu, trop malheureux et trop parfait amant. Polyeucte 2 II 571—72. The confidant of Cleopatre, after the submission of Pto- lomee to Caesar, describes her mistress as follows : Cleopatre s'enferme en son appartement, Et sans s'en emouvoir attend son compliment. Pompee 3 I 723-24. It is the same mark of gallantry which Othon shows to the princess Camille, twenty three years later : Othon k la Princesse a fait un compliment, Plus en homme de cour qu'en veritable amant. Othon 2 I 399-400. Othon makes love to Plauline in deferential terms : Madame, encore un coup, souffrez que je vous aime, Othon 2 II 541—42. This quotation takes us back nineteen years to the oc- casion when the wicked Marcelle says to Theodore : Et si vous vous aimez, souffrez que je vous aime. Theodore 2 IV 492. In the gallant speech of Sertorius to Viriate, we witness an excess of politeness on the part of the old general. As Viriate pronounces the w^ord «love» Sertorius says : Souffrez, apres ce mot, que je meure a vos pieds. Sertorius 4 II 1256. Gorneille's original heroine, Eryxe, takes leave of Sopho- nisbe with perfect consciousness of her own high breeding. She retires saying : Mais le Roi vient : adieu , je n'ai pas I'imprudence De m'offrir pour troisieme a votre conference , Sophonisbe 1 III 243—44. — 103 — An instance of faultless deportment is seen in the graceful manner in w?iich Andromede, rescued from the sea-monster, acknowledges her indebtedness to her deliverer. To him she say« : Fardonnez, grand heros, si mon etonnement N'a pas la liberie d'aucun remerciment. Andromede 3 III 972—73 As a final example of the gallantry with which the heroine was treated, let us regard Surena in presence of Eurydice. Driven to despair because he is prevented from marrying her, he wishes to die and sacrifice his life to the memory of his beloved. He says to her: Pardonnez a ramour, qui vou^ la sacrifie, Et souffrez qu'un soupir exhale a vos genoux, Pour ma derniere joie, une ame toute a vous. Surena 1 III 254-56. We have noticed that Gorneille availed himself of a limited number of expressions to avoid wasting time. In the present chapter we have likewise observed the frequent recurrence of a select number of polite formulas, with which he seasoned the tone of the conversation of his characters. , — the number was adequate to establish the high breeding of his heroes and heroines, and make them congenial to the cultivated pubhc of the seventeenth century. Gorneille also adopted another means of making his heroines sympathetic to the persons before whom they played. He invested them with hypercritical nicety in their language as in their manners. Affectation was really very far from being a characteristic of Gorneille himself. On the contrary he conceived his tragedies in a bold spirit ; his personages are conspicuous for the vigor and ruggedness of their character. But the atmosphere of Paris was infectious. With the esta- blishment of the Hotel Rambouillet, the precieitses began to make their influence felt. As far back as 1621, a lovesick — 104 — prince in the and 1. 853. N'epargnez point mon sang, goutez^ sans resistance.* Notice that the remainder of the speeches of Rodrigue in this scene are in the second person singular. — 107 — endearing language between lovers, quite naturally prevented the display of all other marks of affection. Gallant compliments were always in order, but the lover's kiss was tabooed. Fon- tenelle congratulated his nation that the habit of kissing upon the stage disappeared with the hourgeois heroines of Alexandre Hardy. Thus it is that Rodrigue and Ghimene, Guriace and Gamille, Polyeucte and Pauline hold each other at arms' length or to be more exact, they do not come into contact at all. A Romeo and Juliet would have been impossible on the French stage. And it took nearly two hundred years, before the French public were ready to welcome, with rapture the tender, clinging Dona Sol of Victor Hugo's Hernani. Today Ghimene and Dona Sol, these two Spanish heroines, born on French soil form in equal mea- sure the delight of the foremost actresses of the Theatre Francais. It remains in this connection to speak of one more require- ment exacted by a strenuous hienseance. The stage of the seventeenth century made no attempt to rival the local color of our nineteenth century productions. The Gl^opatre of Gor- neille was not the Gleopatre of Sardou. She did not bid for applause by means of archaeological costuming or spectacular surroundings. She appeared in the full skirt and low cut bodice of the seventeenth century, with the anachronism, also com- mited by the Gleopatre ^ of Shakespeare of wearing stays. But she pleased the noble ladies of the epoch, as did the young Spa- nish girl, the Parthian Princess and the queen of Garthage by con- forming to their ideas of good taste. As for the heroes of antiquity, they proved to be admirable foils to the heroines. Their manners were perfect. Let one example suffice: Polyeucte, the Ghristian mar- tyr, before offering up his prayer, first drew off his white gloves and removed the plumed hat which covered his long periwig.^ 1 Antony and Cleopatra 1 III 71. 2 For full particulars concerning the stage productions before and after the time of Corneille, see : ~ 108 5. Their Gallic wit. We have called attention to the elegance of the Gorneille heroine in her manners, as a result of the etiquette of the times, and also to the choiceness of her language which re- flects the influence of the affected Marini and the pompous Gongora. These two elements, encouraged as they were, by the Hotel Rambouillel, made themselves felt in the heroines of Gorneille. But they could not completely conceal the under- lying Gallic temperament of the great Gorneille. Look through his complete works, and you will see that it is not alone in his comedies, that his native wit shines forth. His tragedies are full of bright touches, telling strokes of wit and sarcasm, and these often appear in persons and in situations where we least expect them. They are precisely those touches of esprit which one must have at command today if one hopes to mingle with success in polite French sociel}^ and what is true today was just as true two hundred years ago. Thus it happens that a captive princess thirsting for revenge often descends to a comedy basis. Gomedy lines and comedy situations abound in Gorneille. Voltaire writes in speaking of the Cid : «0n avait cru longtemps en France qu'on ne pouvait supporter le trlgi- que continu sans melange d'aucune familiarite» . The famili- Petit de Julleville. Histoire du Theatre en France. Paris 1880. 3 vol. Eugene Despois. Le Theatre Frangais sous Louis XIV. Paris 1874. Fournier. Le Theatre Frangais au 16^ et an 17^ Steele. Paris 1880. 2 vol. Eugene Rigal. Esquisse d'une histoire des theatres de Paris de 1548 a 1635. Hotel de Bourgogne et Marais, Paris 1887. Adolf Ebert. Entivickelungsgeschichte der franzosischen Tragodie. Gotha 1856. Ferdinand Lotheissen: Geschichte der franzosischenLiteratur im XVII. Jahrhundert. vol. II. p. 375. Vienna 1879. — 109 — arilies in the language of Gorneille's characters, however, were never of a low order. His people were too well hred to go below the level of high comedy. Gorneille's was the wit of the wellbred Frenchman. In translating the Agamemnon of his favorite Seneca, his politeness would never have permitted Glytemnestra to call Electra by such a vulgar name as c(ba- bouine», as Holland Brisset had done in 1589. Nor would he have allowed his Sophonisbe to be denounced by her husband in such comparatively mild terms as «impudente» and «efrrontee», as Mairet had done even as late as 1629. And in the year of the Gid, he would never have deigned to deal in such trivialities as did Scudery in his Didon, where the queen of Garthage is summoned from the grotto b}^ Aeneas in the following puerile language : Madame, il ne pleut plus; votre majeste sorte and is informed of the arrival of her sister and her suite by the announcement of the hero : Hola! hi! L'on repond, la voix est deja proche Hola ! hi ! La voicy ! The pleasantries of Gorneille's personages turn largely upon the marriage relation, and at critical moments they seem al- ways ready with malicious insinuations. Sabine, for example, after a plaintive exposition of her pathetic situation, gossips with her confidant about her brother's betrothed : Hier dans sa belle humeur, elle entretint Valere Horace 1 I HI. This bantering tone is then taken up by the confidant, who teases Gamille on the same subject : Vous deguisez en vain une chose trop claire : Je vous vis encore hier entretenir Valere ; Et I'accueil gracieux qu'il recevoit de vous Lui permet de nourrir un espoir assez doux — — 110 — Camille. Si je Tentretins. hier et lui fis bon visage, N'en imaginez rien qu'a son desavantage : Horace 1 II 159-64. This conversalion lakes place on the eve of the great struggle between Alba and Rome. We have already called altenlion to the manner in which Horace, Sabine and Julie discuss their tears and speculate upon the possibilities of Ga- mille's finding another lover to replace the fallen Curiace, and we have also seen how the same arguments are made to do service in the case of Andromede and Surena. Let us pass on to another aspect of the marriage relation, as it appears in Gorneille. We know that Rodehnde seeks her <.<^loirey> in the fidelity walli which she cherishes the memory of her presumably deceased husband. The intriguing Eduige, however, fearing that Rodelinde may be having secret designs on the tyrant Grimoald, determines to forestall the matter without delay, and this she does in the following tone: Mais quelquefois, Madame, avec facilite On croit des maris morts qui sont pleins de sante; Et lorsqu'on se prepare anx seconds hymenees On voit par leur retour des veuves etonnees Pertharite 1 II 145—48. Excellent comedy lines for the right comedy situation, but unjust as used to degrade the dignity of a noble woman hke Rodelinde, merely to show off the wit of Eduige. Sophonisbe's devotion to Garlhage causes her to abandon her husband Syphax in order to enter into a politico-matri- monial alliance with Massinissa. The arguments by which the heroine is won over, are couched in the elegant language of Jiigh comedy. Massinissa says to her: En Tin mot le triomphe est un supplice aux reines; La femme du vaincu ne le pent eviter, Mais celle du vainqueur n'a rien a redouter. De Tune il est aise que vous deveniez V autre; Sophonisbe 2 IV 625—28. — Ill — After Sophonisbe has taken the decisive step, the Roman consul consoles the forsaken husband by predicting that she too will probably be served in the same way before long; for, as he reasons : Si rhymen fut trop prompt, le divorce est aise, Sophonisbe envers vous Tayant mis en usage, Le recevra de lui sans changer de visage, Sophonisbe 4 II 1232—34. These lines are more suggestive of the intriguing heroine of high comedy than of a queen, who has come down to posterity as a model of self-sacrifice and devotion to her fatherland. Plautine in Otlion is also compromised by being made the subject of undignified dialogue. Othon declares that his love for her is so great that he should die of grief, if she were to be taken from him ; whereat the Roman consul reminds him with a slight tinge of maliciousness of the fortitude with which he bore up, when his previous wife, Poppee was taken from him. He says : Poppee avoit pour vous du moins autant d'appas ; Et quand on vous I'ota, vous n'en mourutes pas. Othon 1 II 191-92. Pauline, in despair at the little effect which her tears have on Polyeucte, remarks to her confidant: Tu vois, ma Stratonice, en quel siecle nous sommes : Voila notre pouvoir sur les esprits des hommes; Polyeucte 1 III 129-30. Twenty-three years later, Corneille's original heroine Eryxe expresses a similar conviction : Ici nous ne savons encore ce que nous sommes : Je tiens tout fort douteux tant quHl depend des honimes^ Sophonisbe 2 II 547—48. Attila on four different occasions pays rapturous tribute to the beautiful eyes of Ildione. Butythis princess, jealous of — 112 — the attentions which he is paying to her rival, Honorie, finds herself obliged to remind him : J'ai des yeux verront ce qu'il me faudra voir. Attila 3 II 925. Honorie too plays an unwilling part in a comedy situation. Resisting the presumptuous advances of Attila, she does not attempt to conceal the scorn which a Roman princess should feel for a barbarian tyrant. Drawing herself up to her full height, she gives utterance to one of those grandiloquent truths, which Gorneille was wont to place upon the lips of his heroines : Les grands coeurs parlent avec franchise. Attila 3 IV 1070. What is her consternation to have this noble sentiment thrown back at her as a joke in the next act ! Her words so irritated Attila, that like Sertorius in the case of Viriate five years before, he determined to humble the haughty beauty by imposing upon her a marriage unw^ortly of her <.<^Ioirey>, and prejudicial to her political interests. At her cry of sur- prise, Attila pays her back in her own words : Les grands coeurs parlent avec franchise G'est une verite que vous nCaves apprise: Attila 4 III 1237-38. Voltaire considers the tragedy of Attila so pitiable that, as he saj^s, his readers would never pardon him, if he had wasted precious time in writing a commentary on it. As Voltaire's strong point was his literary style, it would have been interesting to see how he would have criticised the rhyme in which Attila threatens Ildione : Souvenez vous enfin que je suis Attila^ Et que c'est dire tout que d'aller jusque-la Attila 3 II 891—92. — 113 — The triviality of the rhyme unwittingly brings Attila down to the plane of a king of vaudeville, and Sophonisbe becomes a queen of burlesque, when she allows herself to be wooed by a melange of figurative and literal language. After her first husband has been made prisoner, Massinisse wins her over hj reminding her : Et sa captivite qui rompt cet hymenee Laisse voire main libre et la sienne enehainee. Sophonisbe 2 IV 643—44. Plautine becomes a bourgeois heroine of comedy, when after nobly sacrificing her own love for Othon, and begging him for the good of the State to sue for the hand of Gamille, she asks coyly of her confidant : Dis-moi, done lorsqu'Othon s'est offert a Camille, A-t-il paru contraint ? a-t-elle ete facile ? Othon 2 I 373-74. We do not take serious offence at Ghimene for introdu- cing a pun into one of her reflections concerning the good of the State : Mourir pour le pays n'est pas un triste sort; C'est s'imrnor^aliser par une belle mort, Le Cid 4 V 1367—68. nor with the Infante, in the midst of the despair by which she is racked, for playing upon words : Ma plus douce esperance est de perdre Vespoir Le Cid 1 II 135. a famous line condemned by Scudery, but applauded by the Academic Frangaise. But when the queen of Lemnos archly remarks to the enchantress Medea : Je n'ai que des attraits, et vous avez des charmes. La Toison d'Or 3 IV 1285. we forget that TJie Qolden Fleece is a tragedy of the great Corneille. His tragic heroines seem more hke two operetta queens of Offenbach. 8 t — 114 — Gorneille's Gallic vivacity of temperament is well shown in his treatment of Ghimene's fainting scene an episode borrowed from the Cid of Gastro. In the French drama, the young girl is informed of the death of her lover. She turns pale and gasps : Quoi ! Rodrigue est done mort? D. Fernand. Non. non, il voit le jour Et te conserve encore un immuable amour: Calme cette douleur qui pour lui s'interesse. To which Ghimene retorts : Sire, on pame de joie ainsi que de tristesse : Xe Cid 4 V 1347-50. The ready reply of the heroine recovering from a swoon is quite in contrast to that of the dignified Jimena of the Spanish Gid. Gastro's heroine, in the ponderous measures of the Spanish verse, says, in the body of a long speech : Tante atribula un placer Como congoja un pesar Castro, has Mocedades del Cid. Jornada III escena 1. Gorneille^s Ghimene, more vivacious, expresses the same idea, as we have seen, in a single line, and thus brings her retort into rhyme with the preceding speech of the king. We have already called attention to the scene of pithy dialogue between Sophonisbe and Eryxe, where the latter pri- des herself on having «di little common sense*. This touch of sarcasm would seem to have its origin in Gorneille's own mood at the time of writing. It will be remembered that in 1660, the poet issued an edition of his works, in which the celebrated Examens appeared for the first time. In 1663, the 3^ear of Soplwnishe, a second edition appeared, in which Gorneille says, as if to his in creasing number of detractors, that his only guide in writing his first play was «un pen de sens com- mun». The mood of Gorneille in this every day expression would therefore, seem to have passed over into his ideal queen — 115 — of Gelulia. But this is constantly recurring in literature. Cha- racters are often made to say whatever is uppermost in the mind of the author. Oftentimes too, a remote personage hke a queen of Gelulia can be made to express sentiments that an author would hardly dare to be responsible for in his qua- lily as an ordinary citizen. During the Fronde, as is well known, the heroines of Corneille produced their strongest im- pression on women like the Duchesse de Longueville, the Du- chesse de Ghevreuse, the Princesse Palatine and Mademoiselle Montpensier, wdio through the medium of Corneille's own per- sonality, saw themselves mirrored to the life. The heroines of Corneille w^ere thoroughly in touch with the heroines of the Fronde. Another instance of Corneille's own humor is the sarcastic tone in which he trifles with the chief catchword of his heroines. On being congratulated by Boileau on the glory of his long career, he is said to have replied drily, <(Je suis saoul de gloire el affame d'argent». Wilh these unmistakable evidences of a comedy element in the situations and personages of Corneille, it is difficult to account for an opinion recently expressed, that the poet, on reaching the age of thirty, «change de voie. , il semble avoir oublie I'art comique».^ It is true that with the exception of Le Menteur, Corneille did not produce any more comedies, but that did not prevent his comedy vein from asserting it- self, as we have shown, in the serious dramas of his later days. It would he quite as reasonabJe to deny the presence -of the tragic or heroic element in the comedies of Corneille. To quote but a single example in the comedy L'lUusion, Matamoras boasts of himself: Le seul bruit de mon nom renverse les murailles, Befait les escadrons^ gcigne les batailles. 1 M. le Comte de Moiiy. Les Comedies de Corneille. La Nonvelle Re- vue. 1 Sept. 1896. — 116 — Mon courage invaincu contre les empereurs N'arme que la moitie de ses moindres fureurs; Vlllusim 2 II 233-36. And Boileau in 1672, did not hesitate to appropriate these ideas, and incorporate them almost literally into his eulogy of Louis de Bourbon, prince de Gonde, one of the greatest heroes of his times : Conde dont le seul nom fait tomher les murailles Force les escadrons, et gagne les hatailles. Poileau EpUre IV au Roi 133—34. // No, the comedy element in Corneille's tragedies is to be /traced directly back to the native wit of the poet himself. He was not always sublime and sombre. In those bright fla- ishes of wit, which take us often by surprise, we recognize . not «le grand Gorneille», but Gorneille the national Frenchman. In the course of the present essay, we have had occasion to refer often to the commentaries of Voltaire on Gorneille. In the present connection, these commentaries have a peculiar interest in that they show us the nobler side of Voltaire's nature, and at the same time his innate (.wiechancetey> , to use a word, the peculiar flavor of which it is hard to translate. As the reader knows, the proceeds of Voltaire's edition of Gor- neille with commentaries were to go to Mile. Marie Gorneille, grand-niece of the poet. Voltaire's motives were generous, but he, nevertheless, allowed no opportunity of holding Gorneille up to ridicule to pass unimproved. He wilfully misconstrued the meaning of many lines, especially where he saw the chance of suggesting a double entendre. For instance, when the sentimental queen Laodice says to Nicomede : Apres tant de hauts faits, il m'est bien doux, Seigneur, De voir encor mes yeux regner sur voire coeur; Nicomede 1 I 1—2. Voltaire comments maliciously «0n ne voit point ses yeux». — 117 — In like manner Emilie* and Pauline^ are held up to ridicule by the mechant comments of Voltaire. The question as to how far the comic element should be allowed to enter into a tragedy needs not be discussed here. We would only call .the attention of the reader to the fact that the comic of Corneille is not the grotesque comic which we find in the tragedies of Victor Hugo who imitates the fa- miliar comic of Shakspeare. It is always the refined comic, which at its best would not have been unworthy of Moliere. It was the comic of the seventeenth century in France. The naivete of the French wit is one of its greatest charms. The art of saying little but of suggesting much has been carried to perfection by the French. Back in the middle ages their ready wit was as keen as it is today. The unknown poet who wrote the Mystere d' Adam, adapted his biblical story to the temperament of his listeners, by allowing Eve to address Adam in a saucy, vivacious tone. At the critical moment when he is hesitating as to whether he had better taste the forbid- den fruit, he asks ingenuously ccEst-il tant bon?)) and Eve replies, in a couplet : Tu le savras Nel poez saver, sin gusteras. And with this genuine touch of nature in a work other- wise solemn and serious, the mediaeval poet reached the heart and the understanding of his pubhc. He too would have agreed with Victor Hugo that nature and art are one and inseparable.^ 1 Remarques sur Cinna 1 III. 2 Remarques sur Polyeucte 1 III. 3 Victor Hugo. Preface de Cromwell. — 118 6. Their personal charms and attributes. ^ The final requisite of the Gorneille heroine is her beauty. In the estimation of the poet it was highly desirable that his heroines should be as beautiful as the ladies who applauded them. Feminine beauty, to be sure, has always been a favorite theme with the poets of all nations. But in the seventeenth. century Gorneille found himself constrained by his ideas of good taste and Henseance, and also by his reverence for the canons of of Malherbe, to make his heroines beautiful, according to rule. In the Middle Ages, it had been the custom of the poets to rhapsodize in detail over the many, charms of their adored ones.^ Back in the twelfth century, Nicolette is described as follows : Vo vair oeil et vos gens cors Vos biax ris et dox mos Ont men cuer navre a mort 23. 13-15. In another place : Nicolete est avene toi M'amiete o le bont poil 25. 3-4. And again : Nicolete o le vis cler 13. 1. and we are informed that «des cheveux blonds et un teint transparent constituent au moyen age Tideal de beaute, sur- tout pour les hommes du Nordw.^ But of this wealth of detail, which Nicolette is described, Gorneille seems to have ap- propriated for his heroines only the beautiful eyes ; which invest his political princesses with a pastoral charm, which * See Aucassin et Nicolete. Suchier Edition Paderborn 1889. 2 L. Constans. Supplement a la Chrestomathie de I'Ancien Frangais p. 51. Paris 1885. — 119 — must have made them very pleasing to the aristocratic society of the seventeenth century, when the pastoral novel of the school of d'Urfe was at the zenith of its popularity. The «beaux yeux» of Gorneille's heroines are sometimes made the object of a compHment on the part of a lover, or quite as often it is the heroine herself, who with her wonted self-possession tells us of the power of her eyes and the great deeds which they accomplish. Curiously enough we find in Gorneille's Qid no mention of the heroine's beautiful eyes, notwithstanding the fact that in the Spanish original, Rodrigo says of his Jimena: De sus ojos soberanos Siento en el alma el disgusto Castro. Las Moredades del Gid Jornada 11 escena 2. But Gorneille more than made good this omission in his following works, as we shall see. The beautiful eyes of Gamille, for example, almost deter Guriace from the contest between Alba and Rome. As he listens to the pleadings of his betrothed, he muses : Qae les plears d'une amante ont de puissants discours, Et qviun bel oeil est fort avec un tel secours ! Horace 2 V 576-77. Polyeucte is similary affected in presence of PauHne. Al- most shaken in his determination to become a Ghristian, he says to his mentor : Et men coeur, attendri sans etre intimide N'ose depiaire aux y-eux dont il est possede. Sur mes pareils, Nearque, un bel oeil est bien fort : Polyeucte 1 I 19—87. It is the same reflection which restrains Maxime, a rival suitor for the hand of Emilie, from betraying Ginna to Au- gustus : Ce n'est pas le moyen de plaire a ses beaux yeux ■ Que de priver du jour ce qu'elle aime le mieux. Cinna 3 I 771—72. — 120 — Gleopalre describes the power of her eyes over the great Caesar : Son bras ne dompte point de peuples ni de lieux Dont il ne rend hommage au pouvoir de mes yeux; Pompee 2 I 395—96. and nineteen years later, the eyes of Medee exert the same influence over Jason. Proudly she says : De tout ce qu'il a fait de grand, de glorieux, H rend un plein hommage au pouvoir de mes yeux. La Toison d'Or 1 I 307—8. Caesar himself acknowledges to C16opatre the wonderful power of her beautiful eyes: Et vos beaux yeux en fin m'ayant fait soupirer, M'ont rendu le premier et de Rome et du monde. Fompee 4 III 1276-78. Absyrte addresses Hypsipyle in similar gallant language : Madame, si j'osois^ dans le trouble ou vous etes. Montrer a vos beaux yeux des peines plus secretes, La Toison d'Or 2 V 964—65. The beautiful eyes of Pulcherie drive H^raclius to lake the life of the tyrant Phocas : Et ces yeux tout divins, par un soudain pouvoir, Acheverent sur moi Teffet de ce devoir. Heraclius 2 II 527—28. The three idyllic nymphs of Andromede have beautiful eyes in real pastoral style, but they have tried their power on Persee to no purpose. Andromede reproaches them : Ah! c'est de quoi rougir toutes avec justice; Et la honte a vos fronts doit bien cette couleur. Si tant de beaux yeux ont pu manquer son coeur. Andromede 2 I 487-89. Andromede's beautiful eyes are thus prettily sung by Li- riope : Enfin si ses beaux yeux passent pour un miracle, C'est un miracle aussi que son amour. Andromede 2 II 562-63. — 121 — Rodelinde, after listening to several compliments, and having declared to the tyrant, who wishes to marry her : Jamais d'un seul coup d'oeil je t'ai fait esperer ; Pertharite 1 III 238. at last declares scornfully : On publieroit de toi que les yeux d'une femme Plus que ta propre gloire auroient louche ton ame Pertharite 2 V 671—72. The fidelity of Rodelinde, merited indeed that Pertharite on his return should beg the privilege of dying before her eyes. He says to her: Le ciel, qui vous destine a regner en ces lieux, M'accorde au moins le bieu de mourir a vos yeux. Pertharite 4 V 1425—26. This had previously been the ambition of Maxime and Se- vere, to die respectively before the eyes ofEmilie and Pauline, Gorneille was so much impressed with this idea that on his return to the theatre after an absence of nearly ten years, he made it a feature of the gallant love of Thesee for the newly invented princess Dirce, introduced for the first time by Gorneille into the Oedipus tragedy. Thesee says to her : Ici je puis mourir, mais mourir a vos yeux; Oedipe 1 I 40. Sophonisbe reflects on what the power of her eyes has accomplished. With her rival Eryxe in mind she says : Mes yeux d'une autre reine ont detruit le pouvoir ! Sophonisbe 2 V 728—29. By a process of analogy, it would seem as if Gorneille had allowed this idea to pass over into his next drama, for Plautine with one glance causes Othon to forget all previous flames. He tells her: Vous seule d'un coup' d'oeil emportates la gloire D'en faire evanouir la plus douce memoire, Othon 2 II 485—86. U 1 B rX?" — 122 — Attila, hesitating in his choice between Honorie and II- dione, reflects : Que chacun de leurs yeux aime a se faire esclave ; Moi, je ne veux les voir qu'en tyrans que je brave : Attila 1 II 125—28. Attila, nevertheless, succumbs to the inevitable. The beauty of Ildione gets the mastery of him, and he cries : Cruel poison de Tame, et doux eharmes des yeux, Ses yeux, mes souverains, a qui tout est soumis, ibid. 3 I 764-79. Defendez a vos yeux cet eclat invincible. ibid. 3 II 841. To appease Ildione for the love which political interests prevent him from bestowing on her. Attila offers to make her queen of a part of Gaule, as a final tribute to her beautiful eyes. He makes the following proposition : Si la Gaule vous plait, vous la partagerez : J'en offre la conquete a vos yeux adores; ibid. 3 II 875—76, Ildione, however, is not to be bought over by a compro- mise. In her next monologue, after the manner of Chiraene, she apostrophizes the eyes, which have held such sway over Attila, but which begin to show signs of losing their power : Treve, mes tristes yeux, treve aujourd'hui de larmes ! Armez contre un tyran vos plus dangereux eharmes : Attila 4 VII 1437-38. In contrast to the idylHc sentimental mood of Corneille in regard to the beautiful eyes of his heroine, is the Gallic viva- city wdth which he invests Viriate's reply to Sertorius in their first pohtical interview : Et je veux bien, Seigneur, qu'on sache desorraais Que fai d'asses bons yeux 2^our voir ce que je fais Sertorius 2 II 523—24. It is the same ironical touch, which Honorie five years later, puts into her reply to iVttila : — 123 - J'ai des yeux qui verront ce qu'il me faudra voir. Attila 3 II 925. another mingling of the pastoral and the comic element in the tragedy of Gorneille. The foregoing examples are not the only ones/ to be foand in Gorneille, but the number is sufficient to show the poet's fondness for beautiful eyes, and to establish them as quite the most important charm of his tragic heroines ; and indeed not only of Gorneille's heroines, but of the heroines in general of the French classic drama after Gorneille. The beau- tiful eyes of the revengeful Hermione in Racine's Andromaque I Compare further; a) Chalciope, assuring Medee of Jason's devotion to her. La Toison d'Or 1 I 313-14. Oui, je I'ai vu moi-meme, Que pour plaire a vos yeux il prend un soin extreme; b) Seleucus, speaking with the confidant of Rodogune, Rodogune 1 II 97—100. Et vous, en ma faveur, voyez ce cher objet, Et tachez d'abaisser ses yeux sur un sujet Qui peut-etre aujourd'hui porteroit la couronne S'il n'attachoit les siens a sa seule personne, c) Theodore, banishing her lover from her sight, Iheodore 2 II 405. Je crains d'en recevoir quelque coup d'oeil fatal, d) Laodice greeting Nicomede in Nieomede 1 I 1—2. Apres tants de hauts faits, il m'est bien doux, Seigneur, JDe voir encore mes yeux regner sur voire coeur; e) the confidant of Grimoald, pleading the cause of his sovereign before Rodelinde in Pertharite 1 I 73—74. Excusez un amour que vos yeux out eteint : Son coeur pour Eduige en etoit lors atteint; f) Eduige complimented by Grimoald in Pertharite 5 II 1621—22. Et dans ce coeur a vous par vos yeux comhattu Tout mon amour s'oppose a toute ma vertu. g) the precieuse language of Attila to Ildione in Attila 3 II 823-24. Mes plus heureux succes ne font qu'enfoncer mieux L'inevitable trait dont me percent vos yeux. h) the magnanimous compliment of Palmis to her rival Eurydice in Su- rena 1 II 214—15. Si I'ingrat me trahit, vos yeux le justifient, Vos yeux qui sur moi-meme ont un tel ascendant . . . — 124 — drive Orestet o attempt the life of Pyrrhus ; and even tlie Queen Elizabeth of Thomas Corneille's Comte d' Essex in a fit of despair at being forsaken by the hero of the piece, cries out : II a trop de ma bouche, il a trop de mes yeux. Thomas Corneille. Le Comte d^ Essex 2 I. This piece was produced in 1678, before the death of the elder Corneille, and this trait of the heroine cannot fail to have met with his entire approval. The student of English history, how- ever, cannot quite forget that at the time when the play is supposed to have taken place, Elizabeth was according to the dates of history fifty eight years old, and her beautiful eyes strike him as a little anachronistic. But Pierre and Thomas Corneille were not troubled by any such quibbles. Indeed the Pulcherie of 1672 but a few^ years before had been wooed by a lover who went into ecstasy over : «ce charme de vos yeux». And Corneille tells us naively in his preface Au Lecieiir : «Elle passoit alors cinquante ans, et mourut deux ans apres». There is no doubt that Corneille was as susceptible to the charm of beautiful eyes as the heroes of his tragedies. Indeed, but for Mile. Milet of Bouen, whose beautiful eyes inspired him to write his first play, the comedy of Melite, Corneille might never have chosen the career of dramatist. He tells us : Mon bonheur commenca, qnand mon ame fut prise Je gagnai de la gloire en perdant ma franchise Charme de deux beaux yeux, mon vers charma la cour Et ce que j'ai de nom, je le dois a Tamour Excuse a Ariste 61 — 64. This was in 1629. Thirty years later in 1659, the beau- tiful eyes of Mile, du Pare of Moliere's troupe brought Cor- neille back to the theatre, after seven years of retirement, but this time it was a tragedy which they produced. In the vain- glorious style not only permissible but customary among the the writers of the seventeenth century, Corneille sums up the great services, which he has done for the stage, and reminds — 125 — Mile, du Pare, the Marquise as she was called, that his great talents still : pourront sauver la gloire Bes yeux qui me semblent doux Stances a une Marquise. This gallantry, however, must not be taken too seriously. Voltaire after the performance of his tragedy Zmre addressed a similar effusion to the young actress, who appeared in the title rOle, in which he paid tribute no less than three times to her eyes : Ce sont tes yeux, ces yeux si pleins de charmes Le dieu d'amour Est par tes yeux bien plus sur de regner Que tu re^ois avec un sourire tendre Qui voit son sort ecrit dans tes beaux yeux. Voltaire. Epitre a Mile Gaussin. There is no doubt that the use and abuse of «beaux yeux»i were recognized even in the seventeenth century. That they must have become a part of the poetical jargon of every rhymester is evidenced by the fact that Mohere, with his keen sense of the ridiculous, allowed his Bourgeois Geniilhomme to be edified by the following effusion, in the conventional senti- mental language of the times : Je languis nuit et jour, et mon mal est extreme Depuis qu'a vos rigueurs vos beaux yeux m'ont soumis. Si vous traitez ainsi, belle Iris, qui vous aime Helas ! que pourriez-vou| faire a vos ennemis ! Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. 1 11. We can almost hear Attila sighing for the beautiful II- dione, the last of Gorneille's heroines to appear on the scene previous to the Bourgeois Gentilhomme. But there is still another explanation of the constant re- currence of beautiful eyes in the French tragedy. If we care to examine the sentimental poetry of the Middle Ages, we shall find that they are a favorite theme of the old troubadours. To U' — 126 - quote but a single example, Beriiart de Ventadorn^ in the year 1154 complains of the coldness of Eleonore of Poitou: So lo be quern prezenta Sos bels olhs el francs vis Ghrestien de Troies makes it clearer to us how the Thesee of Gorneille's Oedipe was «wounded» by the eyes of Dirce. Thesee confesses his love for the princess as follows : Thesee En un mot, c'est leur soeur, la princesse Dirce, Dont les yeux Oedipe. Quoi ? ses yeux, Prince, vous ont blesse ? Oedipe 1 II 155-56. In a long passage in the Cliges of Ghrestien,^ Alexandre soliloquizes with himself as to the cause and nature of his passion for Soredamors. He tells us Ihat he is severely wounded. Then he asks himself why the wound is not visible, and ex- plains the reason in the following poetic manner: Gupid takes his bow and arrow and shoots his victim in the eye, whence the dart descends to the heart and leaves an aching wound. Why is the eye not wounded? Because it is only a mirror which lights the way to the heart. The musings of Alexandre over the wanton wiles of the little God of Love form one of the gems of mediaeval literature. The idea was an old one. Ghrestien develops it with the impetuousness which charac- terizes a literature in its infancy. Gorneille writing under quite different circumstances treats the idea with full regard for the exigencies required by the bienseance of his century. In two methodically rhymed Alexandrine verses, the manner of Dirce's fascinations for Thesee are described. Her beautiful eyes were a part of her birthright as a heroine of Gorneille. The beautiful eves of the Gorneille heroine make the 1 Sec Bartsch's Chrestomathie Provengale p. 50. 2 Cliges 692—724. Forster edition. — 127 — strongest impression on us because they are the only concrete, charms with which Corneille endows her. He had at command, however, a number of other stereotyped attributes of a gal- lant nature, which he applied systematically to his heroines. In the Cid and Horace these epithets are conspicuous by their absence, but in Cinna they begin and with Pompee the list is practically complete. The poet feels that he has in- vented or at least adopted a sufficient number of epithets, with which to equip his heroines. Let us begin with EmiHe. Ginna, summing up the sit- uation at Rome, says to her; Voila, belle Emilie, a quel point nous en sommes. Cinna 1 III 249. Later in the play, Maxime addresses her in the same terms : Vivez, helle Emilie, ibid. 4 V 1389. Cinna reflecting on the goodness of Augustus, prays that Emilie may be brought to relent : Plut aux Dieux Que sa bonte touchat la beaute qui me charme, ibid. 3 II 799-801. Still hesitating to undertake the awful deed which Emihe demands of him, he says to her: Et si je ne vous aime avec toute I'ardeur Que peut un digne objet attendre d'un grand coeur ! Mais I'empire inhumain qu'exercent vos beautes ibid. 3 IV 927—1055. Augustus in the same terms as Cinna describes his adopted daughter : Emilie, Le digne objet des voeux de toute I'ltalie, ibid. 5 I 1469-70. And even after discovering the conspiracy of which she formed the head, he does not lose his aplomb, but pays her a direct compliment. After making peace with Cinna in those - 128 — well known words «Soyons amis, Ginna)), which are said lo have moved the great Gonde and Louis XIV to tears, Augustus continues : Avec cette beaute que je t'avois donnee, Regois le consulat pour la prochaine annee. ibid. 5 III 1709—10, Pauline offers a few new examples of Gorneille's favorite epithets. Her lover, Severe on beholding her, exclaims : Ah! quelle comble de joie Cette chere beaute consent que je la voie! Folyemte 2 I 373—74. In the cource of their interview, he addresses her : trop aimable objet, qui m'avez trop charme, ibid. 2 II 495. and he takes leave of her with the words : Adieu, trop vertueux objet, et trop charmant. 2 II 571 If now to the foregoing, we add a gallant couplet which first appears in Pompee we shall have enumerated the most important of Gorneille's favorite epithets. Gaesar and Marc An- tony compare notes on Gleopatra : Cesar Antoine, avez-vous vu cette reine adorable ? Antoine Oui, seigneur, je I'ai vue: elle est incomparable; Pompee 3 III 945—46. A glance through the works of Gorneille will show that he had an undisguised preference for the word c(belle». His heroines were beautiful. . It was the easiest way to say so frankly. Gompare the following : Cleopatre vous hait; elle est fiere, elle est belle; Pompee 1 IV 345. Hypsipyle vous aime, elle est reine, elle est belle; La Toison d'Or 3 I 1036. Justine a du merite, elle est jeune, elle est belle: Pulcherie 5 VI 1697. - 129 -> La princesse est mandee, elle vient, elle est belle; S arena 1 I 117. Again the reader feels that it was the rhyme, which com- pelled Gorneille to make his heroines beautiful and it is true that the word «be]le» does furnish the necessary rhyme for words like «elle», ccinfideley^ and other words of similar en- ding. ^ But there are also very many instances in which the word does not stand in rhyme. Compare the following :^ 1 Compare further: a) Attila 4 IV 1289. La princesse Ildione est orgueillense et bell-^; b) Andromede 1 I 131 Andromede jamais ne me par at si belle; c) Andromede 2 II 546 Phinee est plus aime qu' Andromede n'est belle, d) Hypsipyle in La Toison d'Or 4 IV 1672—73 Abandonnant pour vous une reine si belle, J'ai pousse par pitie quelques soupirs vers elle : e) Plautine in Othon 2 IV 597 Apres tout, je me trompe, ou pres de cette beUe. f) Mandane in Agesilas 1 IV 366 Cotys Seigneur, Taim-roit-il ? Spitridete. II la trouve assez belle. g) B6i-enice in Tite et Berenice 4 III 1275—76 Cependant si la Reine, aussi fiere que belle, Sait comme il faut repondre aux voeux d'un infidele, h) Tite et Berenice 5 1 1428 Vous ne me dites plus que Domitie est belle, i) Agesilas 2 IV 601 Ce n'est point qu' Elpinice aux miens n'ait paru belle; j) PulcMrie 1 I 145 Je vois entrer Irene; A spar la trouve belle: k) Pulcherie in Puleherie 2 I 465 Je tremblois qu' a leurs yeux elle ne fut trop 6/'!fe; 2 Compare further: a) Elpinice and Aglatide in Agesilas 1 IV 323. Elles aiment ailleurs, ees belles dedaigneuses ; b) Berenice in Tite et Berenice 1 I 116. Et cette belle reine eut sur lui fant de force, ibid. 2 I 363. 9 f - 130 - Un reste de tendresse M'echappe encore au nom d'une belle prineesse ; Hypsipyle in La Toison d'Or 2 I 684—85. Puis-je voir sans rougir qu'a la belle Ildione i. Vous demandiez conge de m'offrir voire trone, Attila 4 III 1173—74. Car enfin elle est belle, et digne de ma foi; Berenice in Tite et Berenice 2 I 385. Car enfin elle est belle, elle pent tout seduire Ildione in Attila 4 IV 1289. As we have found it interesting to look for analogies in the mediaeval poetry, let us see how the unknown poet of the Chanson de Roland describes the bride of the hero. This one female character plays no important part in the poem. She merely comes to weep over the death of Roland. What inter- ests us here, however, is the language in which she is des- cribed : c(Alde une bele dame. 1. 3708 and the conventional epic formula Aide la bele. 1. 3723 1^ Another proof that Gorneille was impressed with the im- portance of making his heroines beautiful is shown by the fondness with which he also employs the word «beaute». His heroines are beauties: Pour la meme beaute nous faisons memes voeux. Rodogune in Bodogune 1 III 178. cette beaute, qui me tient sous sa loi Theodore in Theodore 4 V 1473. Je plaindrois un amant qui suffrait mes peines, Et tel pour deux beautes que je suis pour deux reines, Se verroit dechire par un egal amour, Elvire and Isabelle in Don Sanche 2 IV 701—3. Chez vous est la beaute qui fait tons mes souhaits. Dirce in Oedipe 1 II 152. Car mon coeur fut son bien a cette belle reine Et pourroit I'etre encor, malgre Rome et sa haine. ibid. 4 IV 1323-24. Au moindre empressement pour cette belle reine, II vous fera justice et reprendra sa chaine. 1 La Chanson de Boland. Edition Gautier. Tours 1872. - 131 — The supreme selfconsciousness of Domilie allows her to speak of herself as a beautj^ She addresses her lover as: L'amant digne du coeur de la beaute qu'il aimei Tite et Berenice 4 III 1179. The five maidens, who were exposed lo the sea-monster, before the decree fell on Androm^de, are thus described in pastoral language by Gassiope : Deja nous avons vu cinq beautes devotees, Mais des beautes^ helas ! dignes d'etre adorees, Andromede 1 I 192—93. As a final example to prove conclusively Gorneille's own enthusiasm for the word, listen to the rhapsody over Ildione, which he puts into the mouth of Attila: Je sens combattu encor dans ce coeur qui soupire Les droits de la beaute contre ceux de Tempire. beaute^ qui te fais adorer en tous lieux, Cruel poison de Tame, et doux charme des yeux, Va la trouver pour moi, cette beaute charmante Attila 3 I 757—69. We have seen that in the judgment of Caesar and Marc Antony, Cleopatra was declared to be adorable and incom- parable. Andromede is a direct successor to the Egyptian queen in this respect: Le ciel lui-meme en la voyant, charme La juge incomparable; 1 Compare further: a) Rodogune in Eodogune 1 II 92. . . . pour cette beaute je lui cede I'empire ; b) Plautine in Othon 1 I 98-99. Mon coeur, tout a Plautine, est ferme a Camille. La beaute de Tobjet, la honte de changer, c) Pulcherie in Pulcherie 2 I 455—56. Moi, qui me figurois que ma caducite Pres de la beaute meme etoit en surete ? d) Hypsipyle in La Toison d'Or 3 III 1188. Helas ! je ne craignois que tes beautes de Grece; - 132 - Mais quoiqu'il Tait faite adorable, Phinee est encor plus aime. Andromede 2 II 566- 69. Gamille is thu described by ber rival Plautine : Pour vous avec ce trone elle etoit adorable, Pour vous elle y renonce, et n'a plus rien d'aimable. Othon 4 I 1165. Tbes^e sings the charms of the three princesses, mentioned in Oedipe: Antigone est parfaite, Ismene est adorable; Dirce, si vous voulez, n'a rien de comparable : Ellas sont Tune et I'autre un chef d'oeuvre des cieux; Oedipe 1 II 161-63. In the gossip scene with which the daughters of Lysan- der open the tragedy of Agesilas, Elpinice says to Aglatide : Et je craindrois fort que Mandane, Cette incomparable Persane , N'eut pour lui des attraits plus forts que vos appas. Agesilas 1 I 153 — 55. Andromede is addressed : Dne seconde fois, adorable princesse, Andromede 5 II 1480. As a final example Attila beseeches Ildione : Cessez d'etre adorable, Attila 3 II 839. We therefore see that Gorneille's heroines in rhyme and out of rhyme, were adorable, aimable, mcomparaile} 1 Compare further : a) Honorie in Attila 5 I 1461—62. C'est par la que vos yeux la trouvent adorable, Et que vous faites naitre un amour veritable, b) Elpinice in Agesilas 3 III 1172 Seigneur, la personne est aimdble : c) Pulcherie in Pulcherie 2 I 469—70 Quel supplice d'aimer un objet adorable Et de tant de rivaux se voir le moins aimable! d) Eurydice in Surena 3 II 854. Le prince aime Eurydice autant qu'elle est aimable; - 133 - Still another term which Gorneille applied to his heroines was oljet with some qualifying adjective, such as clier, digne, rare, illustre, cJiarmant. The following examples will serve to illustrate this method : Mais lorsqu'wn digne ohjet i a pu nous enflammer, Rodogune in JRodogune 1 III 153. Le rare et cher object qui fait seul mon destin.| Theodore in Theodore 4 I 1129. , . Get illustre oijet qui lui blesse les yeux? Viriate in Sertorius 4 IV 1536. Ne vous offensez pas^ objet rare et eharmant,"^ Theodore in Theodore 2 IV 465. In Pompee we are told of Cleopatra, in her efforts to cap- tivate Caesar : . . . . elle s'en vante, elle est son cher objet, Fompee 2 IV 655. Corneille would seem to have been specially pleased with this method of designating his heroine, for following Cleopatra Rodogune,^ Theodore,^ Andromede/ Rodelinde, ^ Dirc^,' So- 1 Compare: a) Theodore in Theodore 2 VI 667. . . . ce digne objet de votre juste haine b) Viriate in Sertorius 4 II 1261—62. Bien qu'un si digne objet le rendit excusable,' J'ai cru honteux d'aimer quand on n'est plus aimable 2 Compare: Rodogune in Bodogune 1 III 139 — 40. J'esperois que I'eclat dont le trone se pare Toucheroit vos desirs plus qu'un objet si rare; 3 Bodogune 1 II 97. Et vous, en ma faveur voyez ce cher objet, 4 Throdore 4 V 1459-60. Helas! et le moyen d'etre sans jalousie, Lorsque ce cher objet te doit plus que la vie ? 3 Andromede 5 I 1441 — 44. Mais de ee cher objet s'en voyant plus hai, Plus il s'en est flatte plus il s'en croit trahi. 6 Pertharite 5 V 1829. Avec ce cher objet tout destin m'est doux. 7 Oedipe 1 II 144. - 134 - phonisbe/ Plaiiline^ and Ildione ^ are all described as a f^cher ohjeU. This is another proof that Gorneille was a firm believer in tried methods. The epithets, which we have enumerated above, are the ones which are indehbly stamped upon the heroines of Gor- neille. They were the poet's favorite attributes. Every reader knows them. At the same time, it would be doing Gorneille an injustice to assert that they are positively the only ones which he made use of, though such an assertion would not be far from the truth. Such expressions as rare ouvrage, digr.e image, digne conqiiete and merveille are also to be met with, expressions precieuse and therefore pleasing in the seventeenth century. But in general we must admit that Gorneille, though gallant towards his heroines, was nevertheless conservative in his poetical description of their charms. We have spoken of Gorneille's fondness for a pathetic element in his heroines. With the adjective (Uristes> he strove to attain a pathetic end. The bereaved wife of Pompey in La mort de Pompee (2 II 537) figures as la triste Cornelie. The second wife of Pompey in SeHofius (5 II 1636) is mentioned as la triste Emilie, and finally the sentimental daughter of Marcelle in Theodore (3 V 1063) who likewise is merely men- tioned without appearing on the stage, is described as la triste Flame. The heroines of Gorneille have all been designated by Sainte Beuve as adorables furies, and this name, from ^he im- 1 Sophonisbe 4 II 1223—24. L'air qu'un si cher ohjet ce plait a respirer A des charmes trop forts pour n'y pas attirer : 2 Othon 1 I 69-70. Tout m'en plait, tout m'en charme, et mes premiers scrapales Pres d'un si cher oljet passent pour ridicules. 3 Attila 4 IV 1347-48. Pour un si cher ohjet que je mats en vos bras, Est-ce un prix excessif qu'un si juste trepas ? — 135 — pressionist point of view, is surely as happy a description, as could have been found. But in reality only four of the heroines are spoken of as furies. -• Emilie is the first of the category. On hearing of the conspiracy which is being formed against him, Augustus, though at the time unconscious of the part which Emilie is playing in it, exclaims : Nommez ce cher objet, grand Prince, et c'est assez. trahison con^ue au sein d'une furie ! Cinna 4 I 1097. The next fury in order is the Pulcherie of HeracliuSy of whom the emperor Phocas says: Cette ingrate furie, apres tant de mepris Conspire encor la perte et du pere et du fils ; HeracUus 1 III 267—68. Sophonisbe is the third furie and traces her claim to the title back to Livy XXX. 13, where Syphax describes her as «illam furiam pestemque». In the tragedy of Gorneille, Syphax says to Lelius : Vous trouverez, Seigneur, cette meme furie Qui seule m'a perdu pour 1' avoir trop cherie Sophonisbe 4= 11 1213—14. The fourth and last of the series is the sister of the Em- peror Valentinian, of whom Attila says : Non, je ne puis plus voir cette ingrate Honorie Qu'avec la meme horreur qu'on voit une furie Attila 5 IV 1641-42. We therefore see that only four of Gorneille's heroines figure under the title which Sainte Beuve has given to the whole class ; and that furthermore, the expression adorable furie does not occur at all. The nearest approach to it is Ginna's characterization of Emilie as an ?oscribed by Augustus, twenty years before the opening of the play. Emihe must, therefore, be between twenty and thirty. The Gleopatre of Rodogune, who likewise demands the head of her enmy, is represented as having two sons already grown up to manhood. But an inquiry into the age of Gorneille's heroines does not furnish us with satisfactory results. We are therefore compelled to accept our heroines as being of an ideal age. In the time of Gorneille, it is not probable that many of the spectators troubled themselves over this point. Realism had not yet made its appearance upon the stage. No actress had yet been found who for the sake of realism would have voluntarily disguised or disfigured her own charms. It is, therefore, safe to assume that the actresses of Gorneille's time in their sumptuous seven- teenth century toilettes, took good care not to look any older than possible, and that they felt quite justified in vying in personal attractiveness with the great ladies of the epoch. Tb.e^LJKfiXlfiJieroines of ideal age. In taking leaVe*^f ttieTieromes of Gorneille, we cannot but acknowledge that in spite of their monotony from the point of view of the present day, they have not been entirely without interest. They have revived many memories of ancient and mediaeval history, as well as of the century in which they ruled the stage. Many of them too in themselves have stirred us by their eloquence, and have compelled our respect by their unflinching adherence to their duty. Why, then, have they not been able to hold their own among the dramatic heroines of the world's Uterature? We would offer two theories. First, Gorneille was not a psychologist, and he, therefore, could not create heroines who should be real human beings from a psy- chological standpoint. He did not have a deep insight into the human heart, and the feminine heart was a sealed book to — 140 — him. With his own cool dehberation and self-consciousness he created his heroines mechanically and idealized them according to hi^ own heroic ideals. The second cause of the fate of Gorneille's heroines lies in the fact that the poet was specifically a man of his centur}'. What he might have been, had he lived in the nineteenth century, we do not know. But as father of the French tragedy, he represents to us now the most illustrious ancestor of a literary genus which has become extinct. The classic French tragedy ruled the world for two centuries. It is now a thing of the past. Foundei^xiIl-a-.S^_of^iraaginary but none the less arbitary rules, it became crystallized into the hard and unin- teresting form which we find in the inferior plays of Gorneille and of the host of minor poets of different nations who conti- nued the school which was brought to perfection by him. The heroines of Gorneille illustrate by themselves the danger of applying rules to the creation of human beings; as Mercier very truly said, the rules o mutilated the charactersj). It does not suffice to pattern one heroine after her predecessor, however successful this predecessor may have been. It is not enough to devise one or two situations and a series of conventional attri- butes, and make them do service for forty years. Finally it is not true that the language of a Malherbe or a Boileau is the only language which a dramatic poet may venture to use. A dra- matic genius will always use the language of a genius, and it will live after him, without becoming petrified and lifeless. But this was not the opinion in the seventeenth century. The clas- sic French drama had its own stil noble, and if we examine the language of the French poet-dramatists from Mairet to Voltaire, we shall gradually perceive that it becomes reduced to a series of conventional formulas.^ Look through the quo- 1 Kinne. Formn'as in the Language of the French Poet-Dramatists of the Seventeenth Century. Strassburg Dissertation. Boston 1891. — 141 — tatioDS so profusely scattered through the present essay, and you will recognize many of these formulas and note the mo- notonous effect which they produce in the delineation of the heroines. The tragic heroines of Corneille were created accor- ding to a system. This system was their doom. Still we are grateful to the great Corneille for the creation of several of his most famous heroines. Ghimene, Emilie and Pauline, through their nobility of character, their «grandeur d'ame» will always live. They are alread}^ immortal in the hearts of the French people. VITA I was born in Boston, Mass. U. S. A. November 5lh. 1866. My early education was received in the Boston public schools. In 1885 I graduated from the Boston Latin School ; and in 1889 from Harvard University with the degree of A. B. In 1890, 1 entered the University of Leipzig, where I remained for three semesters. Returning temporarily to America, I occupied the position of instructor in Romance Languages in Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, where I remained for three semesters, returning in the summer of 1894 to Europe. In October of that year, I entered the University of Strassburg, for the purpose of continuing my studies under Professor Grober. For the many valuable hours of instruction which I have spent in the lecture-rooms and seminars of the above- mentioned German universities, I would take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to the following professors and do- cents : in Leipzig, — Biedermann, Elster, Fliigel, Masius, Springer, Striimpell, Wiilcker, Wundt and Zarncke ; in Strass- burg, — Brandl, Grober, Hiibschmann, Koeppel, Martin, Miller, Rohrig and Schneegans. Charles Carlton Ayer. \ B R A ^^ , OP THE \ XJNIVEBSITY ) 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. DBRARY USB REC'D T .. n JAN 7i352 OCTgg REC'D LD 60\.C% ^mu- 2t^^ r «. o( -R - ^ r If^ C 'J ^ REC'D Lu (f&iy.' FEB 1>'G4-8AM RPCC't ._i JA!^ LD 21A-50m-9,'58 (6889sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkelej^^ LOAN DferT. 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